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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/35942-8.txt b/35942-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5e19452 --- /dev/null +++ b/35942-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9790 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Siege of the Seven Suitors, by Meredith Nicholson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Siege of the Seven Suitors + +Author: Meredith Nicholson + +Illustrator: C. Coles Phillips + Reginald Birch + +Release Date: April 24, 2011 [EBook #35942] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SIEGE OF THE SEVEN SUITORS *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: "Hezekiah"] + + + + + +The Siege of + +The Seven Suitors + + +BY + +MEREDITH NICHOLSON + +AUTHOR OF "THE HOUSE OF A THOUSAND CANDLES," ETC. + + +ILLUSTRATED BY C. COLES PHILLIPS + +AND REGINALD BIRCH + + + + +BOSTON AND NEW YORK + +HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY + +The Riverside Press Cambridge + +1910 + + + +COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY MEREDITH NICHOLSON + +ALL RIGHTS RESERVED + + +_Published October 1910_ + + + + +TO + +THE HONORABLE THOMAS R. MARSHALL + +MY DEAR GOVERNOR:--It was ordered by the franchises of destiny that you +become the chief executive of a state in which the telling of tales +brightened the hunter's camp-fire and cheered the lonely pioneer's +cabin before our people learned the uses of ink; and the supreme +fitness of this lies in the fact that you are yourself the best of +story-tellers and entitled, for your excellence in this particular, as +well as for weightier reasons, to sit at the head of the table in that +commonwealth to which we are both bound by many and dear ties. + +The morning brings to your mail-box so many demands, necessitating the +most varied and delicate balancings and adjustments, that I serve you +ill in adding to your burdens the little packet that contains this +tale. Pray consider, however, that I have hidden it discreetly beneath +a pile of documents touching nearly the state's business; or that I +hastily serve it upon you in the highway, an unsanctioned writ from +that high court of letters in which I am the least valiant among the +bailiffs. + +Sincerely yours, + M. N. + +MACKINAC ISLAND, + _August_ 10, 1910. + + + + +CONTENTS + + I. MY FRIEND WIGGINS IS INTRODUCED + II. THE BEGINNING OF MY ADVENTURE + III. I FALL INTO A BRIAR PATCH + IV. WE DINE IN THE GUN-ROOM + V. THE STRANGE BEHAVIOR OF A CHIMNEY + VI. I DELIVER A MESSAGE + VII. NINE SILK HATS CROSS A STILE + VIII. CECILIA'S SILVER NOTE-BOOK + IX. I MEET A PLAYFUL GHOST + X. MY BEFUDDLEMENT INCREASES + XI. I PLAY TRUANT + XII. THE RIDDLE OF THE SIBYL'S LEAVES + XIII. I DISCOVER TWO GHOSTS + XIV. LADY'S SLIPPER + XV. LOSS OF THE SILVER NOTE-BOOK + XVI. JACK O' LANTERN + XVII. SEVEN GOLD REEDS + XVIII. TROUBLE AT THE PRESCOTT ARMS + XIX. THE GHOST OF ADONIRAM CALDWELL + XX. HEZEKIAH PARTITIONS THE KINGDOM + + + + +THE SIEGE OF THE SEVEN SUITORS + + + +I + +MY FRIEND WIGGINS IS INTRODUCED + +I dined with Hartley Wiggins at the Hare and Tortoise on an evening in +October, not very long ago. It may be well to explain that the Hare +and Tortoise is the smallest and most select of clubs, whose windows +afford a pleasant view of Gramercy Park. The club is comparatively +young, and it is our joke that we are so far all tortoises, creeping +through our several professions without aid from any hare. I hasten to +explain that I am a chimney doctor. Wiggins is a lawyer; at least I +have seen his name in a list of graduates of the Harvard Law School, +and he has an office down-town where I have occasionally found him +sedately playing solitaire while he waited for some one to take him out +to luncheon. He spends his summers on a South Dakota ranch, from which +he derives a considerable income. When tough steaks are served from +the club grill, we always attribute them to the cattle on Wiggins's +hills. Or if the lamb is ancient, we declare it to be of Wiggins's +shepherding. It is the way of our humor to hold Wiggins responsible +for things. His good nature is usually equal to the worst we can do to +him. He is the kind of fellow that one instinctively indicts without +hearing testimony. We all know perfectly well that Wiggins's ranch is +a wheat ranch. + +Wiggins is an athlete, and his summers in the West and persistent +training during the winter in town keep him in fine condition. As I +faced him to-night in our favorite corner of the Hare and Tortoise +dining-room, the physical man was fit enough; but I saw at once that he +was glum and dispirited. He had through many years honored me with his +confidence, and I felt that to-night, after we got well started, I +should hear what was on his mind. I hoped to cheer him with the story +of a visit I had by chance paid that afternoon to the Asolando +Tea-Room; for though Wiggins is a most practical person, I imagined +that he would be diverted by my description of a place which, I felt +sure, nothing could tempt him to visit. I shall never forget the look +he gave me when I remarked, at about his third spoonful of soup: + +"By the way, I dropped into an odd place this afternoon. Burne-Jones +buns, maccaroons, and all that sort of thing. They call it the +Asolando." + +I was ambling on, expecting to sharpen his curiosity gradually as I +recited the joys of the tea-room; but at "Asolando" his spoon dropped, +and he stared at me blankly. It should be known that Wiggins is not a +man whose composure is lightly shaken. The waiter who served us +glanced at him in surprise, a fact which I mention merely to confirm my +assertion that the dropping of a spoon into his soup was an +extraordinary occurrence in Wiggins's life. Wiggins was a proper +person. On the ranch, twenty miles from a railroad, he always dressed +for dinner. + +"The Asolando," I repeated, to break the spell of his blank stare. +"Know the place?" + +He recovered in a moment, but he surveyed me quizzically before +replying. + +"Of course I have heard of the Asolando, but I thought you did n't go +in for that sort of thing. It's a trifle girlish, you know." + +"That's hardly against it! I found the girlishness altogether +attractive." + +"You always were tolerably susceptible, but broiled butterflies and +moth-wings soufflé seem to me rather pale food for a man in your +vigorous health." + +"They must have discriminated in your favor; I saw no such things, +though to be sure I was afraid to quibble over the waitress's +suggestions. May I ask when you were there?" + +"Oh, I dropped in quite accidentally one day last spring. I saw the +sign, and remembered that somebody had spoken of the place, and I was +tired, and it was a long way to the club, and"-- + +Dissimulation is not an art as Wiggins attempts to practice it at +times. He is by nature the most straightforward of mortals. It was +clear that he was withholding something, and I resolved to get to the +bottom of it. + +"I don't think the Asolando is a place that would attract either of us, +and yet the viands are good as such stuff goes, and the gentle +hand-maidens are restful to the eye,--Pippa, Francesca, Gloria, and the +rest of 'em." + +Wiggins pried open his artichoke with the care of a botanist. He had +regained his composure, but I saw that the subject interested him. + +"You were there this afternoon?" he inquired. + +"Yes, my first and only appearance." + +"And this is Monday." + +"The calendar has said it." + +"So you settled your bill with Pippa! I believe this was her day." + +"Then you really do know the inner workings of the Asolando," I +continued; "I thought you would show your hand presently. Then it is +perhaps Gloria, Beatrice or Francesca who minds the till on Tuesdays, +Thursdays and Saturdays, alternating with Pippa, who took my coin +to-day. It's a pretty idea. It has the delicacy of an arrangement by +Whistler or the charm of a line in Rossetti. So you have seen the +blessed damozel at the cash-desk." + +"On the contrary I was never there on Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday, +and I therefore passed no coin to Francesca, Gloria or Beatrice. My +only visit was on a day last May, and my recollection of the system is +doubtless imperfect." + +"Then beyond doubt I saw Pippa. She makes the change on Monday, +Wednesday and Friday. Her eyelashes are a trifle too long for the +world's peace." + +"I dare say. I have n't your charming knack, Ames, of picking up +acquaintances, so you must n't expect me to form life-long friendships +with young women at cash-desks. I suppose it did n't occur to you that +those young women who tend till and serve the tables in there are +persons of education and taste. The Asolando is not a common hashery. +I sometimes fear that so much crawling through chimneys is clouding +your intellect. It ought to have been clear even to your smoky +chimney-pot that those girls in there are not the kind you can ask to +meet you by the old mill at the fall of dewy eve, or who write notes to +popular romantic actors. There's not a girl in that place who has n't +a social position as good as yours or mine. The Asolando's a kind of +fad, you know, Ames; it's not a tavern within the meaning of the +inn-keepers' act, where common swine are fed for profit. The servants +serve for love of the cause; it's a sort of cult. But I suppose you +are incapable of grasping it. There was always something sordid in +you, and I'm pained to find that you're getting worse." + +Wiggins had, before now, occasionally taken this attitude toward me, +and it was always with a view to obscuring some real issue between us. +He requires patience; it is a mistake to attempt to crowd him; but give +him rope and he will twist his own halter. + +We sparred further without result. I had suggested a topic that had +clearly some painful association for my friend. He drank his coffee +gloomily and lighted a cigar much blacker than the one I knew to be his +favorite in the Hare and Tortoise humidor. He excused himself shortly, +and I had a glimpse of him later, in the writing-room, engaged upon +letters, a fact in itself disquieting, for Wiggins never wrote letters, +and it was he who had favored making the Hare and Tortoise writing-room +into a den for pipe-smokers. The epistolary habit, he maintained, was +one that should be discouraged. + +I was moodily turning over the evening newspapers when Jewett turned +up. Jewett always knows everything. I shall not call him a gossip, +but he comes as near deserving the name as a man dares who lectures on +the Renaissance before clubs and boarding-schools. Jewett knows his +Botticelli, but his knowledge of his contemporaries is equally exact. +He dropped the ball into the green of my immediate interest with a neat +approach-shot. + +"Too bad about old Wiggy," he remarked with his preluding sigh. + +"What's the matter with Wiggins?" I demanded. + +"Ah! He has n't told you? Thought he told you everything." + +This was meant for a stinger, and I felt the bite of it. + +"You do me too much honor. Wiggins is not a man to throw around his +confidences." + +"And I rather fancy that his love-affairs in particular are locked in +his bosom." + +Jewett was a master of the art of suggestion; he took an unnecessarily +long time to light a cigar so that his words might sink deep into my +consciousness. + +"Saw her once last spring. Got a sight draft from the Bank of Eros. +Followed her across the multitudinous sea. Bang!" + +"But Wiggy has n't been abroad. Wiggy was on his Dakota ranch all +summer. He's all tanned from the sun, just as he is every fall," I +persisted. + +"Wrote you from out there, did he? Sent you picture-postals showing +him herding his cattle, or whatever the beasts are? Kept in touch with +you all the time, did he? I tell you his fine color is due to +Switzerland, not Dakota." + +"Wiggins is n't a letter-writer, nor the sort of person who wants to +paper your house with picture-postals. His not writing does n't mean +that he was n't on his ranch," I replied, annoyed by Jewett's manner. + +"Never dropped you before, though, I wager," he chirruped. "I tell you +he saw Miss Cecilia Hollister at the Asolando tea-shop: just a glimpse; +but almost immediately he went abroad in pursuit of her. The +chevalier--that's her aunt Octavia--was along and another niece. My +sister saw the bunch of them in Geneva, where the chevalier was +breaking records. A whole troop of suitors followed them everywhere. +My sister knows the girl--Cecilia--and she's known Wiggy all her life. +She's just home and told me about it last night. She thinks the +chevalier has some absurd scheme for marrying off the girl. It's all +very queer, our Wiggy being mixed up in it." + +"Don't be absurd, Jewett. There's nothing unusual in a man being in +love; that's one fashion that does n't change much. I venture to say +that Wiggins will prove a formidable suitor. Wiggins is a gentleman, +and the girl would be lucky to get him." + +"Quite right, my dear Ames; but alas! there are others. The +competition is encouraged by the aunt, the veteran chevalier. My +sister says the chevalier seems to favor the suit of a Nebraska +philosopher who rejoices in the melodious name of Dick." + +Jewett was playing me for all his story was worth, and enjoying himself +immensely. + +"For Heaven's sake, go on!" + +"Nice girl, this Cecilia. You know the Hollisters,--oodles of money in +the family. The chevalier's father scored big in +baby-buggies--responsible for the modern sleep-inducing perambulators; +sold out to a trust. The father of Wiggins's inamorata had started in +to be a marine painter. A founder of this club, come to think of it, +but dropped out long ago. You have heard of him--Bassford Hollister. +Funny thing his having to give up art. Great gifts for the marine, but +never could overcome tendency to seasickness. Honest! Every time he +painted a wave it upset him horribly. The doctors could n't help him. +Next tried his hand at the big gulches down-town. There was a chance +there to hit off the metropolitan sky-line and become immortal by doing +it first; but a new trouble developed. Doing the high buildings made +him dizzy! Honest! He was good, too, and would have made a place, but +he had to cut it out. He was so torn up over his two failures that he +blew in his share of the perambulator money in riotous living. Lost +his wife into the bargain, and has settled down to a peaceful life up +in Westchester County in one of these cute little bungalows the +real-estate operators build for you if you pay a dollar down for a +picture of an acre lot." + +"And the daughter?" + +"Well, Bassford Hollister has two daughters. It's the older one that +has stolen Wiggins's heart away. She's Cecilia, you know. Very +literary and that sort of thing, and pushed tea and cookies at the +Asolando when that idiocy was opened. Wiggins saw her there last +spring. Miss Hollister, the aunt,--whom I 'm fond of calling the +chevalier,--picked up her nieces about that time and hauled them off to +Europe, and Wiggins scampered after them. I don't know what they did +to Wiggy, but you see how he acts. I rather imagine that the chevalier +did n't smile on his suit. She's a holy terror, that woman, with an +international reputation for doing weird and most unaccountable things. +She draws a sort of royalty on all the baby-buggies in creation; it +amounts to a birth-tax, in contravention of the free guarantees of the +Constitution. The people will rise against it some day. + +"She's plausible enough, but she's the past mistress of ulterior +motive. She got Fortner, the mural painter, up to a place she used to +have at Newport a few years ago, ostensibly to do a frieze or +something, and she made him teach her to fire a gun. You know Fortner, +with his artistic ideals! And he did n't know any more about guns than +a flea. It was droll, decidedly droll. But she kept him there a +month,--wouldn't let him off the reservation; but she paid him his fee +just the same, though he never painted a stroke. When he got back to +town, he was a wreck. It was just like being in jail. I warn you to +let her alone. If you should undertake to fix her flues she's likely +to put you to work digging potatoes. She's no end of a case." + +"Well, Wiggins is a good fellow, one of the very best," I remarked, as +I absorbed these revelations, "and it is n't the girl's aunt he wants +to marry." + +"He's a capital fellow," affirmed Jewett, "and that's why it's a sin +this had to happen to him. There's no telling where this affair may +lead him. There's something queer in the wind, all right. The +chevalier has brother Bassford where he can't whimper; I rather fancy +he feeds from her hand. His girls have n't any prospects except +through the chevalier. Nice girls, so I'm told; but between the father +with his vertiginous tendencies and a lunatic aunt who holds the family +money-bags, I don't see much ahead of them. Miss Cecilia Hollister is +living with her aunt; it's a sort of compulsory sequestration; she has +to do it whether she wants to or not. I rather fancy it's to keep her +away from Wiggins." + +"And the other sister; where does she come in?" + +"Not important, I fancy. Rumor is silent touching her. In fact I 've +never heard anything of her. But this Cecilia is no end handsome and +proud. Poor old Wiggy!" + +I was already ashamed of myself for having encouraged Jewett to discuss +Wiggins's affairs, and was about to leave him, when he snorted, in a +disagreeable way he had, at some joke that had occurred to him, and he +continued chuckling to himself to attract my attention. My frown did +not dismay him. + +[Illustration: He continued chuckling to himself to attract my +attention.] + +"I knew there was something," he was saying, "about Miss Cecilia's +younger sister, and I've just recalled it. The girl has a most +extraordinary name, quite the most remarkable you ever heard." + +He laughed until he was purple in the face. I did not imagine that any +name known to feminine nomenclature could be so humorous. + +"Hezekiah! Bang! That's the little sister's name. Bassford Hollister +had been saving that name for a son, who never appeared, to do honor to +old Hezekiah, the perambulator-chap. So they named the girl for her +grand-dad. Bang! One of the apostles, Hezekiah!" + +I waited for his mirth to wear itself out, and then rose, to terminate +the interview with an adequate dramatic dismissal. + +"You poor pagan," I remarked, with such irony as I could command; "it's +too bad you insist on revealing the abysmal depths of your ignorance: +Hezekiah was not an apostle, but a mighty king before the day of +apostles." + +I left him blinking, and unconvinced as to Hezekiah's proper place in +history. + +Wiggins, I learned at the office, had, within half an hour, left the +club hurriedly in a cab, taking a trunk with him. He had mentioned no +mail-address to the clerk. + +And this was very unlike Wiggins. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE BEGINNING OF MY ADVENTURE + +Wiggins's strange conduct and Jewett's dark hints so disturbed me that +the very next afternoon I again sought the Asolando Tea-Room, feeling +that in its atmosphere I might best weigh the few facts I possessed +touching my friend's love-affairs. + +Those who care for details in these matters may be interested to know +that the Asolando is tucked away among print-shops and exclusive +haberdashers, a stone's throw from Fifth Avenue. The Asolando Tea-Room +has a history of its own, but it is not the office of this chronicler +to record it. Weightier matters are ahead of us; and it must suffice +that the Asolando is sacred to wooers of the flute of Pan, secession +photographers, and confident believers in an early revival of the +poetic drama. One of my friends, who has probably done more to +popularize Nietzsche than any other American, had frequently urged me +to visit the Asolando, where, he declared, the daintiest imaginable +luncheons could be obtained at nominal prices; but I should not have +paid this second visit had it not been for Jewett's history. + +It was common gossip in studios where I loafed between my professional +engagements, that the monthly deficit at the Asolando was cared for by +a retired banker whose weakness is sonnet-sequences. As to the truth +of this I have no opinion. It will suffice if I convey in the fewest +possible lines a suggestion of the tranquillity, the charming cloistral +peace of the little room, with its Arts and Crafts chairs and tables, +its racks of books, its portraits of Browning, Rossetti, Burne-Jones +and kindred spirits; nor should I fail to mention the delightful +inadvertence with which neatly framed excerpts from the bright page of +British song are scattered along the walls. Nowhere else, many had +averred, was one so likely to learn of the latest Celtic poet, or of a +newly-discovered Keats letter; and lest injustice be done in these +suggestions to the substantial scholarly attainments of the habitués, I +must record that it was over a cup of tea in the Asolando that Bennett +made the first notes for his revolutionary essay on the Sapphic +fragments in a dog-eared text still treasured among the Room's +memorabilia. + +I chose a table, sat down, and suggested (one does not order at the +Asolando) a few articles from the card an attendant handed me. + +"We 're out of the Paracelsus ginger-cookies," she replied, "but I +recommend a Ruskin sandwich with our own special chocolate. The +whipped cream is unusually fine to-day." + +She eyed me with a severity to which I was not accustomed, and I +acquiesced without parley in her suggestion. Before leaving me she +placed on my table the latest minor poet, in green and gold. + +It was nearly three o'clock, and there were few customers in the +Asolando. At the next table two women were engaged in conversation in +the subdued tones the place compelled. I surmised from the amount and +variety of their impedimenta and their abstracted air, peculiar to +those who partake of lobster salad with an eye on the 4.18, that they +were suburbanites. One of them drew from her net shopping-bag several +sheets of robin's-egg blue note-paper and began to read. By the jingle +of the rhymes and the flow of the rhythm it was clear even to my +ignorant lay mind that her offering was a _chant-royale_. When she had +concluded her reading her friend silently pressed her hand, and after a +subdued debate for possession of the check, they took their departure, +bound, I surmised, for some muse-haunted Lesbos among the hills of New +Jersey. + +I was now alone in the Asolando. The attending deities in their snowy +gowns had vanished behind the screen at the rear of the room; the food +and drink with which I had been promptly served proved excellent; even +the minor poet in green and gold had held my attention, though +imitations of Coventry Patmore's odes bore me as a rule. Near the +street, half-concealed behind a mosque-like grill, sat the cashier, +reading. A bundle of joss-sticks in a green jar beside this young +woman sent a thin smoke into the air. Her head was bent above her book +in quiet attention; the light from an electric lamp made a glow of her +golden hair. She was an incident of the general picture, a part of a +scene that contained no jarring note. A man who could devise, in the +heart of the great city, a place so instinct with repose, so lulling to +all the senses, was not less than a public benefactor, and I resolved +on the spot to purchase and read, at any sacrifice, the +sonnet-sequences of the reputed angel of the Asolando. + +It was at this moment that the adventure--for it shall have no meaner +name--actually began. My eyes were still enjoying the Rossetti-like +vision in the cashier's tiny booth, when a figure suddenly darkened the +street door just beyond her. The girl lifted her head. On the instant +the lamp-key clicked as she extinguished her light, and the aureoled +head ceased to be. And coming toward me down the shop I beheld a lady, +a lady of years, who passed the cashier's desk with her eyes intent +upon the room's inner recesses. Her gown, of a new fashionable gray, +was of the severest tailor cut. Her hat was a modified fedora, gray +like the gown, and adorned with a single gray feather. She was short, +slight, erect, and moved with a quick bird-like motion, pausing and +glancing at the vacant tables that lay between me and the door. Her +air of abstraction became her, and she merged pleasantly into the +color-scheme of the room. As her glance ranged the wall I thought that +she searched for some favorite flower of song among the framed +quotations, but I saw now that her gaze was bent too low for this. She +appeared to be engaged in a calculation of some sort, and she raised a +lorgnette to assist her in counting the tables. The cashier passed +behind her unseen and vanished. I heard the newcomer reciting:-- + +"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven;" and at seven her eyes rested +upon me with a look that mingled surprise and annoyance. She took a +step toward me, and I started to rise, but she said quickly:-- + +"I beg your pardon, but this seems to be the seventh table." + +[Illustration: "I beg your pardon, but this seems to be the seventh +table."] + +"Now that you call my attention to it," I remarked, gaining my feet, "I +am bound to concede the point. If by any chance I am intruding"-- + +"Not in the least. On the other hand I beg that you remain where you +are;" and without further ado she sank into a chair opposite my own. + +I tinkled a tiny crystal bell that was among the table-furnishings, and +a waitress appeared and handed the lady who had thus introduced herself +to my acquaintance a copy of the tiny card on which the articles of +refreshment offered by the Asolando were indicated within a border of +hand-painted field daisies. + +"Never mind that," said the lady in gray, ignoring the card. "You may +bring me a caviare sandwich and a cocktail,--a pink +one--providing,--providing,"--and she held the waitress with her +eye,--"you have the imported caviare and your bar-keeper knows the +proper frappé of the spirit-lifter I have named." + +"Pardon me, madam," replied the waitress icily, "but you have mistaken +the place. The Asolando serves nothing stronger than the pure water of +its own fount of Castalia; intoxicants are not permitted here." + +"Intoxicants!" repeated the old lady with asperity. "Do I look like a +person given to intoxication? I dare say your Castalia water is +nothing but Croton whose flavor has been destroyed by distillation. +You may bring me the sandwich I have mentioned and with it a pot of +tea. Yes, thank you; lemon with the tea." + +As the girl vanished with the light tread that marked the service of +the place, I again made as to rise, but the old lady lifted her hand +with a delaying gesture. + +"Pray remain. It is not unlikely that we have friends and ideas in +common, and as you were seated at the seventh table it is possible that +some ordering of fate has brought us together." + +She took from me, in the hand which she had now ungloved, the copy of +my minor poet, glanced at it scornfully, and tossed it upon the floor +with every mark of disdain. + +"What species of mental disorder does this place represent?" she +demanded. + +"It is sacred to the fine arts, apparently; an endowed tea-room, where +persons of artistic ideals may come to refresh body and soul. Such at +least seems to be the programme. This is only my second visit, but I +have long heard it spoken of by artists, poets, and others of my +friends." + +"I am sixty-two years old, young man, and I beg to inform you that I +consider the Asolando the most preposterous thing I have ever heard of +in this most preposterous city. And from a casual glimpse of you I +feel justified in saying that a man in your apparent physical health +might be in better business than frequenting, in mid-afternoon, a shop +that seems to be a remarkably stupid expression of twentieth-century +anæmia." + +"Attendance here is not compulsory," I remarked defensively. + +"If you imply that I must have sought the place voluntarily, let me +correct your false impression immediately. I dropped in here for the +excellent reason that this shop is the seventh in numerical progression +from Fifth Avenue." + +"You were not guided by any feeling of interest, then, but rather by +superstition?" + +"That remark is unworthy of a man of your apparent intelligence. I was +born on the seventh of November, and all the great events of my life +have occurred on the seventh of the month. If you were to suggest that +I am of an adventurous or romantic nature, I should readily acquiesce; +but the sevens in my life have been so potent an influence in all my +affairs that my belief in that numeral has become almost a religious +faith; and if you have been a reader of Scripture you will understand +that one does not become a pagan in ascribing to seven all manner of +subtle influences." + +I was relieved to find that she accepted the tea and sandwiches the +waitress had brought without parley. It is with shame I confess that +in the first moments of my encounter I believed her capable of +quarreling with a waitress; but she thanked the girl pleasantly, +lifting her head with a smile that illumined her face attractively. +Her demand for a cocktail had not been wholly convincing as to her +sincerity, and I wondered whether she were not playing a part of some +kind. She suggested pleasant and wholesome things--tiny gardens with +neat borders of box and primly-ordered beds of spicy, old-fashioned +pinks before the day of carnations, and the verbenas, heliotrope, and +honeysuckle we associate with our grandmothers' taste in floriculture. +Or perhaps I strike nearer the gold with an intimation of a sunny +window-ledge, banked neatly and not too abundantly in geraniums. + +In any event the impression was wholly agreeable. I had to do with a +lady and a lady of no mean degree. The marks of breeding were upon +her, and she spoke with that quiet authority that is the despair of the +vain and vulgar. Her features were small and delicate; her ringless +hands were perfectly formed, and both face and hands belied the age to +which she had so frankly confessed. She was more than twice my age, +and there was not the slightest reason why she should not address me if +it pleased her to do so; and her obsession as to the potency of the +numeral seven was not in itself proof of an ill-balanced mind. I +recalled that my own mother had, throughout her life, imputed all +manner of occult powers and influences to the number thirteen, and I +have myself always been averse to walking beneath a ladder. Musing +thus, I reached the conclusion that this encounter was very likely the +sort of thing that happened to patrons of the Asolando. My time has, +however, a certain value, and I began to wonder just how I should +escape. I was about to excuse myself when my companion suddenly put +down her cup and addressed me with a directness that seemed habitual in +her. + +"I have formed an excellent opinion of your bringing up from the manner +in which you have suffered my advances, if I may so call them. You act +and speak like a gentleman of education. I imagine from your being in +this strange place that you may be a water-colorist or a designer of +_l'art-nouveau_ wall-papers, though I trust for your own sake that I am +mistaken. Or it may be that you are a magazine poet, though when I +tell you that I read no poets but Isaiah and Walt Whitman, you will +understand that mere verse does not attract me. All this"--and she +indicated the mottoes on the wall with a slight movement of the +head--"is the sheerest rubbish, a form of disease. Will you kindly +tell me the nature of your occupation?" + +I produced one of my professional cards. + + +-----------------------------+ + | | + | ARNOLD AMES | + | | + | CONSULTANT IN CHIMNEYS | + | Suite 92, Landon Building | + | | + +-----------------------------+ + +She read it aloud without glasses and mused a moment. + +"This is very curious," she remarked, placing my card in a silver case +she drew from her pocket. "This is very curious indeed. It was only +yesterday that my friend General Glendenning was speaking of you. He +told me that you had rendered him the greatest service in adjusting +several flues in his country house at Shinnecock. My own fireplaces +doubtless require attention, and you may consider yourself retained. I +shall make an early appointment with you. You will find my name and +residence sufficiently described on this card." + + +-----------------------------+ + | | + | _Miss Hollister_ | + | | + | HOPEFIELD MANOR | + | | + +-----------------------------+ +"Oh!" I exclaimed, bowing. "Any further introduction is unnecessary, +Miss Hollister." + +"The name is familiar? I recall that General Glendenning mentioned +that you were related to the Ames family of Hartford, and your mother +was a Farquhar of Charlottesville, Virginia. If you bear your father's +name, I dare say it was he whom I met ten years ago in Paris. There is +no reason, therefore, why we should not be the best of friends." + +She continued to talk as she drew on her gloves, and I saw, as her eyes +rested on mine from time to time during this process, that they were +the most kindly and humorous eyes in the world. Her face was scarcely +wrinkled, but the hair that showed under the small plain hat was evenly +and beautifully gray. It was a kind fate indeed that had led me back +to the Asolando, and introduced me to the aunt of Wiggins's inamorata. + +It may well be believed that I was immediately interested, attentive, +absorbed. As she smoothed her gloves, Miss Hollister continued to +speak in a low musical voice that was devoid of any of the quavers of +age. + +"On the day I reached my sixtieth year, Mr. Ames, I decided that my +humdrum life must cease. The strictest conventions had guided me from +earliest childhood. My experience of life had been limited to those +things which women of education and means enjoy--or suffer, as you +please to take it. I resolved that for the years that remained to me I +should seek to enjoy myself after my own fashion. To sit in the +inglenook and knit, with no human companionship but sick kittens, with +dull monotony broken only by visits from dutiful clergymen in pursuit +of alms for foreign missions, was not for me. Two years ago I +chartered a yacht and cruised among the Lesser Antilles, enjoying many +adventures. Later I crossed the Andes; and I have just returned from +Switzerland, where I accomplished some of the most difficult ascents. +I have a clipping bureau engaged to inform me of all rumors of hidden +treasure and sunken ships, and I hope that of this something may come, +as I retain a marine engineer and corps of divers and can leave at an +hour's notice for any likely hunting-ground. This may strike you as +the most whimsical self-indulgence. Tell me candidly whether my +remarks so affect you." + +"If it were not that your benefactions of all kinds have given you +noble eminence among American philanthropists, I might be less biased +in favor of the sort of thing you describe; but your gifts to +orphanages, colleges, hospitals"-- + +"Ah!" she interrupted; "enough of that. Philanthropy in these times is +only selfish exploitation, the recreation of the conscience-stricken. +But you see no reason why," she pursued eagerly, "if I wished to dig up +the Caribbean Sea in search of Spanish doubloons, I should not do so? +Answer me frankly, without the slightest fear." + +"I assure you, Miss Hollister, that such projects appeal to me +strongly. I have often lamented that my own lot fell in these +eventless times. As an architect I proved something of a failure; as a +chimney-doctor I lead a useful life, but the very usefulness of it +bores me. And besides, many people take me for a sweep." + +"I dare say they do, for unfortunately many people are fools. But I am +bent upon adventure. It has dawned upon me that every day has its +possibilities, that the right turn at any corner may bring me face to +face with the most stirring encounters. My age protects me where youth +must timidly turn back. My physician pronounces me good for ten years +more of active life, and I intend to keep amused. If I were a young +man like you, I should crawl through chimneys no more, but take to the +open road. I resent the harsh clang of these meaningless years. As I +walked among the hills that lie behind the Manor this morning I heard +the bugles calling. Out there in the Avenue at this hour there are +miles of fat dowagers in padded broughams who think of nothing but +clothes and food. And speaking of food," she continued, with a droll +turn, "I am convinced that the caviare in that sandwich was never +nearer Russia than Casco Bay." + +She drew out her watch, and noting the hour, concluded:-- + +"Clearly we have much in common. I should like to ask you further as +to your unusual profession, but errands summon me elsewhere. However, +something tells me we shall meet again." + +She rose in her swift bird-like fashion and passed lightly down the +room and through the door. She had left a dollar beside her plate to +pay her check, which I noted called for only forty cents. I glanced at +the cashier's desk. The aureoled head had not reappeared; but +immediately I heard a voice murmuring beside me. I had believed myself +alone, and in my surprise I thought some wizardry had made audible one +of the verses on the wall. + + "What of Rafael's sonnets, Dante's picture"-- + + +It was she whose aureoled head I had marked earlier in the receipt of +custom, the girl who had vanished as Miss Hollister appeared. She wore +the snowy vestments of the other attending vestals, with the difference +that the cap that crowned the waitresses was omitted in her case. This +I took to be the Asolando's tribute to her adorable head, which clearly +did not need the electric light or other adventitious aid to invoke its +lovely glow. The line she had spoken hung goldenly upon the air. She +was not tall, and her eyes, I saw, were brown. She had clearly not +climbed far the stairway of her years, but her serenity was the least +bit disconcerting. + +"Pardon me," I began, "but I am an ignorant Philistine, and cannot cap +the verse you have quoted." + +"There is no reason why you should do so. It is the rule of the +Asolando that we shall attract the attention of customers when +necessary by speaking a line of verse. We are not allowed to open a +conversation, no matter how imperative, with 'Listen,' or the even more +vulgar 'Say.'" + +"A capital idea, of which I heartily approve, but now that I am a +waiting auditor, eager"-- + +"It's merely the check, if you please," she interrupted coldly. "My +desk is closed, and the Room will refuse further patrons for the next +hour, as the executive committee of the Shelley Society meets here at +four o'clock and the Asolando is denied to outsiders." + +"This, then, is my dismissal? The lady who joined me here for a time +left a dollar, which, you will see, is somewhat in excess of her check. +My own charge of fifty cents is so moderate that I cannot do less than +leave a dollar also." + +"Thank you," she replied, unshaken by my generosity. "The tips at the +Asolando all go to the Sweetness and Light Club, which is just now +engaged in circulating Matthew Arnold's poems in leaflet form in the +jobbing district." + +"I sympathize with that propaganda," I replied, gathering up my hat and +stick, "and am delighted to contribute to its support. And now I dare +say you would be glad to be rid of me. The Asolando has tolerated me +longer than my slight purchases justified." + +I bowed and had turned away, when she arrested me with the line,-- + + "My good blade carves the casques of men." + + +I turned toward her. Several of the waitresses were now engaged in +rearranging the tables, but they seemed not to heed us. + +"Permit me to inquire," she asked, "whether the lady who joined you +here expressed any interest in the life beautiful as it is exemplified +in the Asolando?" + +"I am constrained to say that she did not. She spoke of the Asolando +in the most contumelious terms." + +The golden head bowed slightly, and a smile hovered about her lips; but +her amusement at my answer was more eloquently stated in her eyes. + +"I must explain that my sole excuse for addressing you is that we are +required to learn, where possible, just why strangers seek the +Asolando." + +"In the case of the lady to whom you refer, it was a matter of this +being the seventh shop from the corner; and my own appearance was due +to the idlest curiosity, inspired by enthusiastic descriptions of the +Asolando's atmosphere and rumors of the cheapness of its food." + +"The reasons are quite ample," was her only comment, and her manner did +not encourage further conversation. + +"May I ask," I persisted, "whether the Asolando's staff is permanent, +and whether, if I return another day." + +"I take it that you do not mean to be impertinent, so I will answer +that my service here is limited to Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. +On the other days Pippa is in the cash-booth. My name at the Asolando +is Francesca." + +"I had guessed it might be Lalage or Chloris," I ventured. + +She shook her head gravely. + +"Kindly write your name in the visitors' book at the door as you pass +out." + +There was no ignoring this hint. I thought she smiled as I left her. + + + + +III + +I FALL INTO A BRIAR PATCH + +Miss Hollister's summons lay on my desk the next morning and was of the +briefest. I was requested to call at Hopefield Manor at four o'clock +the following afternoon, being Thursday. A trap would meet me at +Katonah, and it was suggested that I come prepared to spend the night, +so that the condition of the flues might be discussed and any necessary +changes planned during the evening. The note, signed Octavia +Hollister, was written in a flowing hand, on a wholly impeccable note +sheet stamped Hopefield Manor, Katonah. + +Before taking the train I sought Wiggins by telephone at his office, +and at the Hare and Tortoise, where he lodged, but without learning +anything as to his whereabouts. His office did not answer, but +Wiggins's office had never been responsive to the telephone, so this +was not significant. The more I considered his conduct during the +recital of my visit to the Asolando the more I wondered; and in spite +of my wish to ignore utterly Jewett's revelations as to Wiggins's +summer abroad, I was forced to the conclusion that Jewett had not lied. +I had known Wiggins long, and this was the first time that I had ever +been conscious of any withholding of confidence on his part; and on my +own I had not merely confided all my hopes and aims to him, but I had +leaned upon him often in my perplexities. There was, indeed, a kind of +boyish compact between us, that we should support each other through +all difficulties. This, as I remembered, dated back to our prep +school-days and had been reinforced by a fearsome oath, inspired +doubtless by some dark fiction that had captivated our youthful +imaginations. His failure to tell me of his summer abroad or of his +interest in the Hollisters when I had afforded him so excellent an +opening by my reference to the Asolando emphasized the seriousness of +his plight. His reserve hid, I knew, a diffident and sensitive nature, +and it was wholly possible that if his affair with Cecilia Hollister +had not prospered he had fled to his ranch there to wrestle in +seclusion with his disappointment. My mind was busy with such +speculations as I sped toward Katonah, where I found the trap from +Hopefield Manor awaiting me. + +"It's rather poor going over the hills; about five miles, sir," said +the driver, as we set off. + +This sort of thing was wholly usual in the nature of my vocation. The +flues in country houses seem much more willful and obdurate than those +in town, a fact which I have frequently discussed with architects, and +I had been met in just this way at many stations within a radius of +fifty miles of New York, and carried to houses whose chimneys were +provocative of wrath and indignation in their owners. + +This was the first week in October. There was just zest enough in the +air to make a top coat comfortable. The team of blacks spoke well for +Miss Hollister's stable, and the liveried driver kept them moving +steadily, but eased the pace as we rose on the frequent slopes to the +shoulders of pleasant hills. The immediate neighborhood into which we +were wending was unknown to me, though I saw familiar landmarks. I am +not one to quibble over the efforts of man to supplement the work of +nature, so that I confess without shame that the Croton lakes, to my +cockney eye, merge flawlessly into this landscape. It is not for me to +raise the cry of utilitarianism against these saucerfuls of blue water, +merely because the fluid thus caught and held bubbles and sparkles +later in the taps of the Manhattaners. Early frosts had already +wrought their miracle in the foliage, and the battle-banners of +winter's vanguard flashed along the horizons. I rejoiced that my +business, vexatious enough in many ways, yet afforded me so charming an +outing as this. + +Presently we climbed a hill that shouldered its way well above its +fellows and came out upon a broad ridge, where we entered at once a +noble gateway set in an old stone wall, and struck off smartly along a +fine bit of macadam. The house, the driver informed me, was a quarter +of a mile from the gate. The way led through a wild woodland in which +elms and maples predominated; and before this had grown monotonous we +came abruptly upon an Italian garden, beyond which rose the house. I +knew it at once for one of Pepperton's sound performances; Pepperton is +easily our best man in domestic Tudor, and the whole setting of +Hopefield Manor, the sunken garden, the superb view, the billowing +fields and woodlands beyond, all testified to a taste which no ignorant +owner had thwarted. The house was Tudor, but in no servile sense: it +was also Pepperton. I lifted my eyes with immediate professional +interest to the chimney-pots on the roof. It occurred to me on the +instant that I had never before been called to retouch any of +Pepperton's work. Pep knew as much as I about flue-construction; I had +an immense respect for Pep, and as my specializing in chimneys had been +a subject of frequent chaffing between us, I anticipated with a chuckle +the pleasure I should have later in telling him that at last one of his +flues had required my services. + +My good opinion of Miss Hollister did not diminish as I stepped within +the broad hall. Houses have their own manner of speech, and Hopefield +Manor spoke to all the senses in accents of taste and refinement. A +servant took my bag and ushered me into a charming library. A fire +smouldered lazily in the great fireplace; there was, in the room, the +faintest scent of burnt wood; but the smoke rose in the flue in a +perfectly mannerly fashion, and on thrusting in my hand I felt a good +draught of air. I instinctively knelt on the hearth and peered up, but +saw nothing unworkmanlike: Pepperton was not a fellow to leave obvious +mistakes behind him. But possibly this was not one of the recalcitrant +fireplaces I had been called to inspect; and I rose and was continuing +my enjoyment of the beautiful room, when I became conscious, by rather +curious and mixed processes not wholly of the eye, that a young woman +had drawn back the light portieres--they were dark brown, with borders +of burnt orange--and stood gravely gazing at me. She held the curtains +apart--they made, indeed, a kind of frame for her; but as our eyes met +she advanced at once and spoke my name. + +[Illustration: She held the curtains apart.] + +"You are Mr. Ames. My aunt expected you. I regret to say that she is +not in the house just now, but she will doubtless return for tea. I am +her niece. Won't you sit down?" + +As she found a seat for herself, I made bold to survey her with some +particularity. She carried her fine height with beautiful dignity. +She was a creature of grace, and it was a grace of strength, the +suppleness and ease that mark our later outdoor American woman. She +could do her miles over these hills,--I was sure of that. Her fine +olive face, crowned with dark hair, verified the impression I had +gathered from Jewett, that she was a woman of cultivation. She had +read the poets; Dante and Petrarch spoke from her eyes. Cecilia was no +bad name for her; she suggested heavenly harmonies! And as for +Jewett's story of Wiggins's infatuation, I was content: if this was the +face that had shattered the frowning towers of Wiggins's Ilium and sent +him to brood disconsolate upon his broad acres in Dakota, my heart went +out to him, for his armor had been pierced by arrows worthy of its +metal. + +She was talking, meanwhile, of the day and its buoyant air and of the +tapestries hung in the woodlands, in a voice deep with rare intimations +of viol chords. + +"It's very quiet here. It doesn't seem possible that we are so near +the city. My aunt chose the place with care, and she made no mistake +about it. Yes; the house was built by Mr. Pepperton, but not for us. +My aunt bought it of the estate of the gentleman who built it. This +will be her first winter here." + +She made no reference to the object of my visit, and I wondered if she +knew just how I came there. A man-servant wheeled in a portable +tea-table and placed it beside a particular chair, lighted the lamp +under the kettle, and silently departed. And with the stage thus +disposed Miss Hollister herself appeared. She greeted me without +surprise and much as she might have spoken to any guest in her house. +I had sometimes been treated as though I were the agent of a +decorator's shop, or a delinquent plumber, by the people whom I served; +but Miss Hollister and her niece established me upon a plane that was +wholly social. I was made to feel that it was the most natural thing +in the world for me to be there, having tea, with no business ahead of +me but to be agreeable. The fact that I had come to correct the +distemper of their flues was utterly negligible. I remembered with +satisfaction that I had journeyed from town in a new business suit that +made the best of my attenuated figure, and I will not deny that I felt +at ease. + +Miss Hollister talked briskly as she made the tea. + +"I was over at the kennels when you came. I believe the kennel-master +is a rascal, Cecilia. I have no opinion of him whatever." + +"He was highly recommended," replied the niece. "It's not his fault +that the fox terriers were sick." + +"I dare say it is n't," said the old lady, measuring the tea; "but it's +his fault that he whipped one of those Cuban hounds,--I 'm sure he +whipped her. The poor beast was afraid to crawl out when I called her +this afternoon." + +"We were warned against those dogs, Aunt Octavia; but I must admit that +they have lovely eyes." + +Miss Cecilia's manner toward her aunt left nothing to be desired; it +was wholly deferential and kind, and her dignity, I surmised, was equal +to any emergency that might rise between them. + +"Do you ever shoot behind traps?" demanded Miss Hollister abruptly. + +The question surprised me. I did not shoot behind traps or anywhere +else, for that matter; but it delighted me to find that her unusual +interests, as she had touched upon them at the Asolando, were part of a +consistent scheme of life. She talked of her experiments with +different guns and traps, her arms folded, her eyes reverting +occasionally to the kettle. It was all in the shells, she said. +Before she had begun filling her own cartridges she had no end of +trouble. + +"It is not necessary for you to take tea if you don't care for it, Mr. +Ames," she said, as I rose and handed the first cup to Cecilia. "If +you will touch the bell at your elbow you may have liquids of quite +another sort. It may interest you to know that this temperance wave +that is sweeping the country does not interest me in the least. Our +great Americans of the old times were gentlemen who took their liquor +with no cowardly fear of public censure. You will find my sideboard +well stocked after the fashion of old times; and I have with my own +hand placed in your room a quart of Scotch given me at the distillery +four years ago by its proprietor, Lord Mertondale. A case of like +quality is yours at any moment you choose to press the button at the +head of your bed." + +"You are most generous, Miss Hollister. Tea will suffice for the +moment. It is fitting that I should take it here, it having been a +weakness for tea as well as curiosity and chance that threw me in your +way at the Asolando." + +"That absurd, that preposterous hole in the wall!" + +She put down her cup and faced me, continuing: "Mr. Ames, I will not +deny that if it had not been for General Glendenning's cordial +indorsement of you, and the further fact that I had met your late +father, I should not have invited you to my house on the occasion to +which you refer. My contempt for the Asolando and the things it stands +for is beyond such language as a lady may use before the young." + +I laughed at her earnestness; but on turning toward Miss Cecilia I saw +that she was placidly stirring her cup. It might be that one was not +expected to manifest amusement in Miss Hollister's utterances; and I +was anxious to adjust myself to the proper key in my intercourse, no +matter how brief it might be, with this remarkable old lady. + +In my embarrassment I rose and offered the bread and butter to Cecilia, +who declined it. The austerity of her rejection rather unnerved me. + +"To think, that with all the opportunities for adventure that offer in +this day and generation, any one should waste time on the idiotic +worship of a lot of silly moulders of literary patisserie! It is +beyond me, Mr. Ames, and when I recall that your late father commanded +a cavalry regiment in the Civil War, I fall back upon the privilege of +my age to beg that you will hereafter give the Asolando a wide berth." + +"I assure you, Miss Hollister, that I have no wish to become an habitué +of the place. And yet you will pardon me if I repeat that, but for it, +I should not now be enjoying the hospitality of Hopefield Manor." + +She lifted her head from her cup and bowed; but I was immediately +interested in the fact that her niece was speaking. + +"I think Aunt Octavia is hard on the Asolando," she was saying. "Aunt +Octavia is interested in the revival of romance, and romance without +poetry seems to me wholly impossible. The Asolando makes no +pretensions to be more than an incident in a real movement whose aim is +the diffusion of poetic fire,--it is merely a shrine where the divine +lamp is never allowed to fail or falter." + +"And if, Cecilia Hollister, you think that sandwiches named for +Browning's poems or macaroons dedicated to Walter Pater can assist +foolish virgins in keeping their lamps filled, I give you the word of +an old woman that you are in danger of a complete loss of your mind. +The age is decadent, and I know no better way of restoring the race to +its ancient vim and energy than by sending men back to the camp and +field or to sail the high seas in new armadas. The men of this age +have become a lot of sordid shopkeepers, and to my moral sense the +looting of cities is far more honorable than the creation of trusts and +the manipulation of prices, though I cannot deny that but for my late +father's zeal in destroying his competitors in the baby-buggy business +we might not now be enjoying the delicate fragrance of caravan tea." + +I continued to flounder in my anxiety to determine just how Miss +Hollister wished to be taken. She spoke with the utmost seriousness +and with the earnestness of deep conviction. If the aims of the +Asolando were absurd, what might be said of the declarations of this +old lady in favor of a return to the age of sword and buckler! + +I again turned to Cecilia, thinking that I should find a twinkle in her +eye that might solve the riddle and make easier my responses to her +aunt's appeals. Her reply did not help me greatly:-- + +"I assure you, Mr. Ames, that the Asolando is a very harmless place, +and that as a matter of fact its aims are wholly consonant with those +of Aunt Octavia. I myself served there for a time, and those were +among the most delightful days of my life." + +"And you might still be handing about the Rossetti éclairs in that +smothery little place if I had not rescued you from your bondage. I +assure you, Mr. Ames, that my niece is a perfectly healthy young woman, +to whom all such rubbish is really abhorrent." + +I expected Miss Cecilia to rouse at this; but she ignored her aunt's +fling, saying merely,-- + +"There are times when I miss the Asolando." + +"Mr. Ames," began Miss Octavia presently in her crisp, direct fashion, +which had the effect of leading me, in my anxiety to appear ready with +answers, to take a flattering view of my own courage and +resourcefulness,--"Mr. Ames, are you equal to the feat of swimming a +moat under a shattering fire from the castle?" + +"I have every reason to think I am, Miss Hollister," I replied modestly. + +"And if a white hand waved to you from the grilled window of the lonely +tower, would you ride on indifferently or pause and thunder at the +gate?" + +"White hands have never waved to me, save occasionally when I have gone +a-riding in the Sixth Avenue elevated, but it is my honest belief that +my sword would promptly leave its scabbard if the hand ever waved from +the ivied tower." + +She nodded her pleasure in this avowal. For a chimney-doctor I was +doing well. In fact, as I submitted to Miss Octavia's examination, I +felt equal to charging a brigade single-handed. Something about the +woman made it possible and pleasant to be absurd. + +"If a king or an emperor of Europe should ask you to inspect his +chimneys, would you be content to perform your service in the most +expeditious and professional manner and depart with a nominal fee?" + +"Decidedly not, Miss Hollister. On the other hand I should nurse the +job for all it was worth, plunder the public treasury, explore the +dungeons, make love to the princesses, and free the rightful heir to +the throne from his cell beneath the bosom of the lake." + +My friends at the Hare and Tortoise would have heard this avowal with +some surprise, for no man's life had ever been tamer than mine. I am +by nature timid, and fall but a little short of being afraid of the +dark. Prayers for deliverance from battle, murder, and sudden death +cannot be too strongly expressed for me. My answer had, however, +pleased Miss Octavia, and she clapped her hands with pleasure. + +"Cecilia," she cried, "something told me, that afternoon at the +Asolando, that my belief in the potential seven was not ill-placed, and +now you see that in introducing myself to Mr. Ames at the seventh table +from the door, in the seventh shop from Fifth Avenue, I was led to a +meeting with a gentleman I had been predestined to know." + +As we talked further, a servant appeared and laid fresh logs across the +still-smouldering fire. This I thought would suggest to Miss Hollister +the professional character of my visit; but the fire kindled readily, +the smoke rose freely in the flue; and Miss Hollister paid no attention +to it other than to ask the man whether the fuel he had taken from a +carved box at the right of the hearth was apple-wood from the upper +orchard or cherry from a tree which, it appeared, she had felled +herself. It was apple-wood, the man informed her, and she continued +talking. The merits of chain-armor, I think it was, that held us for +half an hour, Cecilia and I listening with respect to what, in my +ignorance, seemed a remarkable fund of knowledge on this recondite +subject. + +"We dine at seven, Mr. Ames, and you may amuse yourself as you like +until that hour. Cecilia, you may order dinner in the gun-room +to-night." + +"Certainly, Aunt Octavia." + +Once more I glanced at the girl, hoping that some glimmer in her eyes +would set me right and establish a common understanding and sympathy +between us; but she was moving out of the room at her aunt's side. The +man who had tended the fire met me in the hall and, conducting me to my +room, suggested various offices that he was ready to perform for my +comfort. The house faced south, and my windows, midway of the east +wing, afforded a fine view of the hills. The room was large enough for +a chamber of state, and its furniture was massive. A four-poster +invited to luxurious repose; half a dozen etchings by famous +artists--Parrish and Van Elten among them--hung upon the walls; and on +a table beside the bed stood a handsome decanter and glasses, +reinforced by the quart of Scotch which Miss Hollister had recommended +for my refreshment. + +My bag had been opened and my things put out, so that, there being more +than an hour to pass before I need dress for dinner, I went below and +explored the garden and wandered off along a winding path that stole +with charming furtiveness toward a venerable orchard of gnarled apple +trees. From the height thus gained I looked down upon the house, and +caught a glimpse beyond it of one of the chain of lakes, on which the +westering sun glinted goldenly. Thus seeing the house from a new +angle, I was impressed as I had not been at first by its size: it was a +huge establishment, and I thought with envy of Pepperton, to whom such +ample commissions were not rare. Pepperton, I recalled a little +bitterly, had arrived; whereas I, who had enjoyed exactly his own +training for the architect's profession, had failed at it and been +obliged to turn my hand to the doctoring of chimneys. But I am not a +morbid person, and it is my way to pluck such joy as I may from the +fleeting moment; and as I reflected upon the odd circumstance of my +being there, my spirits rose. Miss Hollister was beyond question a +singular person, but her whims were amusing. I felt that she was less +cryptic than her niece, and the thought of Cecilia drove me back upon +Jewett's story of Wiggins's interest in that quarter. I resolved to +write to Wiggins when I got back to town the next day and abuse him +roundly for running off without so much as good-bye. That, most +emphatically, was not like dear old Wiggins! + +I had been sitting on a stone wall watching the shadows lengthen. I +rose now and followed the wall toward a highway along which wagons and +an occasional motor-car had passed during my revery. The sloping +pasture was rough and frequently sent me along at a trot. The wall +that marked the boundary at the roadside was hidden by a tangle of +raspberry bushes, and my foot turning on a stone concealed in the wild +grasses, I fell clumsily and rolled a dozen yards into a tangle of the +berry bushes. As I picked myself up I heard voices in the road, but +should have thought nothing of it, had I not seen through a break in +the vines, and almost within reach of my hand, Cecilia Hollister +talking earnestly to some one not yet disclosed. She was hatless, but +had flung a golf-cape over her shoulders. The red scarlet lining of +the hood turned up about her neck made an effective setting for her +noble head. + +"Oh, I can't tell you! I can't help you! I must n't even appear to +give you any advantage. I went into it with my eyes open, and I 'm in +honor bound not to tell you anything. You have said +nothing--nothing,--remember that. There is absolutely nothing between +us." + +"But I must say everything! I refuse to be blinded by these absurd +restrictions, whatever they are. It's not fair,--it's inviting me into +a game where the cards are not all on the table. I 've come to make an +end of it!" + +My hands had suffered by contact with the briars, and I had been +ministering to them with my handkerchief; but I fell back upon the +slope in my astonishment at this colloquy. Cecilia Hollister I had +seen plainly enough, though the man's back had been toward me; but +anywhere on earth I should have known Wiggins's voice. I protest that +it is not my way to become an eavesdropper voluntarily, but to disclose +myself now was impossible. If it had not been Wiggins--but Wiggins +would never have understood or forgiven; nor could I have explained +plausibly to Cecilia Hollister that I had not followed her from the +house to spy upon her. I should have made the noise of an invading +army if I had attempted to effect an exit by creeping out through the +windrow of crisp leaves in which I lay; and to turn back and ascend the +slope the way I had come would have been to advertise my presence to +the figures in the road. There seemed nothing for me but to keep still +and hope that this discussion between Cecilia Hollister and Hartley +Wiggins would not be continued within earshot. To my relief they moved +a trifle farther on; but I still heard their voices. + +[Illustration: This discussion between Cecilia Hollister and Hartley +Wiggins.] + +"I cannot listen to you. Now that I 'm committed I cannot honorably +countenance you at all; and I can explain nothing. I came here to meet +you only to tell you this. You must go--please! And do not attempt to +see me in this way again." + +I was grateful that Wiggins's voice sank so low in his reply that I did +not hear it; but I knew that he was pleading hard. Then a motor +flashed by, and when the whir of its passing had ceased, the voices +were inaudible; but a moment later I heard a light quick step beyond +the wall, and Cecilia passed hurriedly, her face turned toward the +house. The cape was drawn tightly about her shoulders, and she walked +with her head bowed. + +I breathed a sigh of relief, and when I felt safe from detection +climbed the slope. + +Pausing on the crest to survey the landscape, I saw a man, wearing a +derby hat and a light top-coat, leaning against a fence that inclosed a +pasture. As I glanced in his direction he moved away hastily toward +the road below. The feeling of being watched is not agreeable, and I +could not account for him. As he passed out of sight, still another +man appeared, emerging from a strip of woodland farther on. Even +through the evening haze I should have said that he was a gentleman. +The two men apparently bore no relation to each other, though they were +walking in the same direction, bound, I judged, for the highway below. +I had an uncomfortable feeling that they had both been observing me, +though for what purpose I could not imagine. Then once more, just as I +was about to enter the Italian garden from a fallow field that hung +slightly above it, a third man appeared as mysteriously as though he +had sprung from the ground, and ran at a sharp dog-trot along the +fence, headed, like the others, for the road. In the third instance +the stranger undoubtedly took pains to hide his face, but he, too, was +well dressed and wore a top-coat and a fedora hat of current style. + +I did not know why these gentlemen were ranging the neighborhood or +what object they had in view; but their several appearances had +interested me, and I went on into the house well satisfied that events +of an unusual character were likely to mark my visit to the home of +Miss Octavia Hollister. + + + + +IV + +WE DINE IN THE GUN-ROOM + +Cecilia sat reading alone when I entered the library shortly before the +dinner-hour. She put down her book and we fell into fitful talk. + +"I took a walk after tea. I always feel that sunsets are best seen +from the fields; you can't quite do them justice from windows," she +began. + +She seemed preoccupied, but this may have been the interpretation of my +conscience, whose twinges reminded me unpleasantly of my precipitation +into the briar bushes at the foot of the pasture, where I had witnessed +her meeting with Wiggins. My admiration gained new levels. Her black +evening gown became her; a band of velvet circled her throat, +emphasizing its firm whiteness. It seemed incredible that I had seen +her so recently, in the filmy dusk, talking with so much earnestness to +Hartley Wiggins. It was my impression, gained from the few sentences I +had overheard by the road, that she did not repulse him, but that some +mysterious, difficult barrier kept them apart. Where, I wondered, was +Wiggins now, and what were to be the further incidents of this singular +affair? + +While we waited for Miss Hollister to appear, she continued to speak of +her joy in the hills. It is not every one who can admire a sunset with +sincerity, but she conveyed the spirit of the phenomena that had +attended the lowering of the bright targe of day in terms and tones +that were delightfully natural and convincing. And yet the far-away +look in her eyes suggested inevitably the scene I had witnessed and the +phrases I had caught by the roadside. Wiggins was in her recollection +of the glowing landscape,--I was confident of this; and poor Wiggins +was even now wandering these hills, no doubt, brooding upon his +troubles under the clear October stars. + +Dinner was announced the moment Miss Hollister entered, and I walked +out between them. Miss Octavia Hollister was a surprising person, but +in nothing was she so delightfully wayward as in the gowns she wore. +My ignorance of such matters is immeasurable, but I fancy that she +designed her own raiment and that her ideas were thereupon carried out +by a tailor of skill. At the Asolando and when we had met at tea in +her own house, she had worn the severest of tailored gowns, with short +skirt and a coat into whose pockets she was fond of thrusting her +hands. To-night the material was lavender silk trimmed in white, but +the skirt had not lengthened, and over a white silk waist she wore a +kind of cut-away coat that matched the skirt. An aigrette in her +lovely white hair contributed a piquant note to the whole impression. +As we passed down the hall she talked with great animation of the Hague +Tribunal, just then holding a prominent place in the newspapers for +some reason that has escaped me. + +"The whole thing is absurd; perfectly absurd! I know of nothing that +would contribute more to human enjoyment than a real war between +Germany and England. The Hague idea is pure sentimentalism,--if +sentimentalism can ever be said to be pure. I will go further and say +that I consider it positively immoral." + +This new view of the matter left me stammering. Cecilia, I saw, had no +intention of helping me over these difficult hurdles that were +constantly popping up in my conversations with her aunt. This +delightful old lady in lavender, the mistress of a house whose luxury +and peace were antipodal to any hint of war, continued to baffle me. +She had ordered dinner in the gun-room, but I thought this merely a +turn of her humor; and I was taken aback when she led the way into a +low, heavily raftered room, where electric sconces of an odd type were +thrust at irregular intervals along the walls, which were otherwise +hung with arms of many sorts in orderly combinations. They were not +the litter of antique shops, I saw in a hasty glance, but rifles and +guns of the latest patterns, and beside the sideboard stood a gun-rack +and a cabinet which I assumed contained still other and perhaps +deadlier weapons. At one end of the room, and just behind Miss +Hollister, was a sunburst of swords, which gleamed with a kind of +mockery behind her white head. + +The small round table was conventionally set, but this only added to +the grimness of the encompassing arsenal. A bowl of crimson roses in +the centre of the snowy cloth would ordinarily have mitigated the +effect of the grim walls; but I confess that the color reminded me a +little too sombrely of the ugly business for which this steel had been +designed. But for the presence of Miss Cecilia, who was essentially +typical of our twentieth-century American woman, I think I might +readily have yielded to the illusion that I was the guest of some +eccentric chatelaine who had invited me to dine with her in a bastion +of her fortress before ordering me to some chamber of horrors for +execution. + +There seemed to be no reason why one of those keen blades on the wall +might not find its way through my ribs between a highly satisfactory +plate of _potage à la tortue_ and a bit of sea-bass that would have +honored any kitchen in the land. No reference was made to the +character of the room; I felt, in fact, that Cecilia rather pleaded +with her eyes that I should make no reference to it. And Miss +Hollister remarked quite casually as though in comment upon my +thoughts:-- + +"Consistency has buried its thousands and habit its tens of thousands. +We should live, Mr. Ames, for the changes and chances of this troubled +life. Between an opera-box and a villa at Newport many of my best +friends have perished." + +"I have thought myself that Thoreau had the right idea,"--I began +hopefully; but she raised her finger warningly. + +"Mr. Ames, the mention of Henry David Thoreau is wholly distasteful to +me. A man who will deliberately choose to whittle lead-pencils for +chipmunks and write a book about a moist sand-pile like Cape Cod +arouses no sympathy in me. And these well-meaning women who are +forever gathering autumn leaves, or who tire you in spring by telling +you they have found the first pussy-willow feathering, and who make all +Nature odious by their general goo-gooings, bore me to death. There is +no such thing possible as the simple life. I give you my word for it +that it is only in the most complex existence that the spirit of man +can thrive." + +I am only a chimney-doctor; I have never been able to make any headway +in discussing things æsthetic, sentimental or spiritual with persons of +sound conviction in such matters. A bishop with whom I once roamed the +English cathedrals confessed to me his sincere belief that in the days +of the inquisition the gridiron would have been my rightful portion. I +was fearful lest my hostess should suggest the mediæval church as a +topic, and this I knew would be disastrous. As an abbess she would, I +fancied, have ruled with an iron hand. But with startling abruptness +she put down her fork, and bending her wonderfully direct gaze upon me, +asked a question that caused me to strangle on a bit of asparagus. + +"I imagine, Mr. Ames, that you are a member of some of the better clubs +in town. If by any chance you belong to the Hare and Tortoise,--the +name of which has always pleased me,--do you by any chance happen to +enjoy the acquaintance of Mr. Hartley Wiggins?" + +Cecilia lifted her head. I saw that she had been as startled as I. It +crossed my mind that a denial of any acquaintance with Wiggins might +best serve him in the circumstances; but I am not, I hope, without a +sense of shame, and I responded promptly:-- + +"Yes, I know him well. We are old friends. I always see a good deal +of him during the winter. His summers are spent usually on his ranch +in the west. We dined together two days ago at the Hare and Tortoise, +just before he left for the west." + +"You will pardon me if I say that it is wholly to his credit that he +has forsworn the professions and identified himself with the honorable +calling of the husbandman." + +"We met Mr. Wiggins while traveling abroad last summer," interposed +Cecilia, meeting my eyes quite frankly. + +"Met him! Did you say met him, Cecilia? On the contrary we found him +waiting for us at the dock the morning we sailed," corrected Miss +Hollister, "and we never lost him a day in three months of rapid +travel. I had never met him before, but I cannot deny that he made +himself exceedingly agreeable. If, as I suspected, he had deliberately +planned to travel on the same steamer with my two nieces, I have only +praise for his conduct, for in these days, Mr. Ames, it warms my heart +to find young men showing something of the old chivalric ardor in their +affairs of the heart." + +"I 'm sure Mr. Wiggins made himself very agreeable," remarked Cecilia +colorlessly. + +"For myself," retorted Miss Hollister, "I should speak even more +strongly. He repeatedly served us with tact and delicacy; and I recall +with the greatest satisfaction his vigorous chastisement of our courier +in Cologne, where that person was found to have treated us in the most +treacherous manner. He had, in fact, in collusion with an inn-keeper, +connived at the loss of our baggage to delay our departure, even after +I had pronounced the cathedral the greatest architectural monstrosity +in Europe." + +"Oh, Aunt Octavia, you didn't really mean that!" And Cecilia laughed +for the first time. Her color had risen, and her dark eyes lit with +pleasure. + +"I had formed so high an opinion of Mr. Wiggins," Miss Octavia +continued, "that I learned with sincerest regret that his ancestors +were Tories and took no part in the struggle for American independence. +There are times when I seriously question the wisdom of the colonists +in breaking with the mother country; but certainly no man of character +in that day could have hesitated as to his proper course." + +Then, as though by intention, Miss Hollister dropped upon the smooth +current of our talk a sentence that drove the color from Cecilia's +face. At once the girl was cold again, and I felt embarrassed and +uncomfortable that a friend of mine had been brought into the +conversation to my befuddlement. The situation was trying, but in +spite of this it grew steadily more interesting. + +"Hezekiah and Mr. Wiggins were the best of friends," was Miss +Hollister's remark. + +Cecilia's eyes were on her plate; but her aunt went on in her blithest +fashion:-- + +"You may not know that Hezekiah is another niece, Cecilia's sister. +She was named, at my suggestion, for my father, there being no son in +the family, and I trust that so unusual a name in a young girl does not +strike you as indefensible." + +"On the contrary, it seems to me wholly refreshing and delightful. As +I recall the Sunday-school of my youth, Hezekiah was a monarch of great +authority, whose animosity toward Sennacherib was justified in the +fullest degree. The very name bristles with spears, and is musical +with the trumpets of Israel. Nothing would make me happier than to +meet the young lady who bears this illustrious name." + +"As to your knowledge of ancient history, Mr. Ames," began Miss +Hollister, as she helped herself to the cheese,--sweets, I noted, were +not included in the very ample meal I had enjoyed,--"it is clear that +you were well taught in your youth. I am not surprised, however, for I +should have expected nothing less of a son of the late General Ames of +Hartford. As to meeting my niece Hezekiah, I fear that that is at +present impossible. While Cecilia remains with me, Hezekiah's duty is +to her father, and I must say in all kindness that Hezekiah's ways, +like those of Providence and the custom-house, are beyond my feeble +understanding. In a word, Mr. Ames, Hezekiah is different." + +"Hezekiah," added Cecilia with feeling, "is a dear." + +"Please don't bring sentimentalism to the table!" cried Miss Hollister. +"Mr. Wiggins once informed me in a moment of forgetfulness,--it was at +Fontainebleau, I remember, when Hezekiah persisted in reminding a +one-armed French colonel who was hanging about that we named cities in +America for Bismarck,--it was there at the inn, that Mr. Wiggins +confided to me his belief that Hezekiah bears a strong resemblance to +the common or domestic peach. As a single peach at that place was +charged in the bill at ten francs, the remark was ill-timed, to say the +least. But Mr. Wiggins was so contrite when I rebuked him, that I +allowed him to pay for our luncheon,--no small matter, indeed, for +Hezekiah's appetite is nothing if not robust." + +The table-talk had yielded little light on the subject of Wiggins's +predicament, whatever that might be; but these references to the absent +Hezekiah had set a troop of interrogation points to dancing on the +frontiers of my curiosity. Miss Hollister had given so many turns to +the conversation that I could reach no conclusion as to her feeling +toward Wiggins or Hezekiah Hollister; and as for Cecilia, I was unable +to determine whether she was a prisoner at Hopefield Manor or the +willing and devoted companion of her aunt. + +In this bewildered state of mind, while we lingered over our coffee, +the servant appeared with a card for each of the ladies. I saw Cecilia +start as she read the name. + +"Mr. Wiggins! How remarkable that he should have appeared just as we +were speaking of him," said Miss Hollister. "Be sure the gentleman is +comfortable in the library, James. We shall be in at once. Mr. Ames, +you will of course be delighted to meet your friend here, and you will +assist us in dispensing our meagre hospitality." + + + + +V + +THE STRANGE BEHAVIOR OF A CHIMNEY + +There was no reason in the world why Hartley Wiggins should not call +upon two ladies living in Westchester County, and I must say that he +appeared to advantage in Miss Hollister's library. + +He had got into his evening clothes somewhere, perhaps at a neighboring +inn, or maybe at the house of a friend; for he could not possibly have +motored into town and back since his interview with Cecilia in the +highway. He had impressed the clerk at the Hare and Tortoise with the +idea that he had left New York for a long absence, and he had +apparently camped at the gates of Hopefield to be near Cecilia. + +When he had paid his compliments to the ladies, he turned to me with an +almost imperceptible lifting of the brows; but he was cordial enough. +If he was surprised or disappointed at seeing me, his manner did not +betray the feeling. + +"Glad to see you, Ames. Rather nice weather, this." + +"Even Dakota could n't do better," I affirmed with a grin; but he +ignored the fling. + +"It is quite remarkable, Mr. Wiggins, that you should have appeared +just when you did, for we had been speaking of you, and I had been +telling Mr. Ames of our travels abroad and in particular of the +thumping you very properly gave our courier at Cologne. And I shall +not deny that I mentioned also our brief discussion of the peach-crop +at Fontainebleau." + +Cecilia stirred restlessly; Wiggins shot a glance of inquiry in my +direction; and I felt decidedly ill at ease. Miss Hollister crossed to +the fireplace and poked the logs. + +Just what part Hezekiah Hollister played in the situation was beyond +me. If I had not witnessed Wiggins's clandestine meeting with Cecilia, +matters would have been clearer to my comprehension; but his appearance +at the house, after the colloquy I had overheard from the briar patch, +was in itself inexplicable. Cecilia was a woman, therefore to be +wooed, and yet she had indicated by her words to him that the wooing, +independently of her feeling and inclination, might not go forward with +entire freedom. Miss Hollister's singular references to Hezekiah--a +person about whom my curiosity was now a good deal aroused--added to +the mystery that enfolded the library. + +"Our American peaches are not what they were in my youth. Cold storage +destroys the flavor. I have not tasted a decent peach for twenty +years." + +This was pretty tame, I admit; but I felt that I must say something. +Responsive to Miss Hollister's energetic prodding, the flames in the +fireplace leaped into the great throat of the chimney with a roar. She +turned, her back to the blaze, and looked upon her guests benignantly. + +"If all your flues draw like that one, they are not seriously in need +of doctoring," I remarked, feeling that flues were a safer topic than +the peach-crop. + +"Flues are nothing if not erratic," replied Miss Hollister. The +subject did not appear to interest her; nor had she, by the remotest +suggestion, referred to the object of my coming. I had sniffed vainly +in the halls above and below for any trace of the stale smoke which +usually greeted me at once on my arrival at the house of a client. The +air of Hopefield Manor was as sweet as that of a June meadow. Wiggins +remarked to me that I doubtless knew the Manor had been designed by +Pepperton, whom we both knew well. + +"This is Pep's masterpiece. He need do nothing better to keep his grip +at the top," he said. + +"I consider it a great privilege to be permitted to visit a house +designed by a dear friend and occupied by a lady peculiarly fitted to +appreciate and adorn it." + +I thought rather well of this as I spoke the words; but neither Cecilia +nor Wiggins rose to it as I hoped they might. + +"You have a neat turn for the direct compliment," said Miss Hollister +promptly. "The house was built, you may not know, for a manufacturer +of umbrellas, who died before he had occupied it, in circumstances I +may later disclose to you; which accounts, Mr. Ames, for that figure of +Cupid under a pink parasol on the drawing-room ceiling. At the first +opportunity I shall remove it, as baby Cupids are irreconcilable with +the militant love-making I admire. I consider umbrellas detestable, +and never carry one when I can command a mackintosh." + +"When I 'm on the ranch I wear a slicker," said Wiggins. "It's +bullet-proof, and that I have found at times a decided advantage." + +We discussed mackintoshes for at least ten minutes, with far more +sprightliness than I had imagined the subject could evoke. Then Miss +Hollister, after a turn up and down the room, paused beside me. + +"Mr. Ames," she said, "would you care to join me in a game of +billiards? I 'm not in my best form, but I think we might profitably +knock the balls for half an hour." + +I acquiesced with alacrity. I assumed it to be Miss Hollister's +purpose to leave Cecilia and Wiggins alone. I should be rendering +Wiggins and Cecilia a service by withdrawing, and I was glad of a +chance to escape. + +To my infinite surprise they both protested, not in mere polite murmurs +but with considerable vehemence. + +"It's quite cool to-night, and I don't believe you ought to use the +billiard-room until the plumber has fixed the radiator," said Cecilia. + +"And if you knew Mr. Ames's game I 'm sure you would n't care to waste +time on him," piped Wiggins, whom I had frequently vanquished in +billiard bouts at the Hare and Tortoise, where, I may say modestly, I +had long been considered one of the most formidable of the club's +players. + +Both he and Cecilia had risen, and we stood, I remember, just before +the hearth, during this exchange. At this moment, a singular thing +happened. The fire that had been sweeping in a broad wave-like curve +into the chimney was checked suddenly. I had repeatedly marked the +admirable draught, the facile grace of the flame as it rose and +vanished. The cessation of the draught was unmarked by any of those +premonitory symptoms by which a fire usually gives warning of evil +intentions. The upward current of air had ceased utterly and without +apparent cause. We were all aware of a choking, a gasping in the deep +flue, which could not be accounted for by any natural stoppage incident +to chimneys--the dislodging of masonry, or a packing of soot. The +former was hardly possible and the house was not old enough to make the +latter theory plausible. From my survey of the flue on my arrival in +the afternoon, I judged that this particular chimney had been little +used. + +The smoke now rolled out in billows and drove us back from the hearth. +I seized the tongs and poker and began readjusting the logs, without, +however, any hope of correcting a difficulty that lay patently in the +upper regions of the flue itself. The smoke, after a courageous effort +to rise, encountered an obstruction of some sort and ebbed back upon +the hearth and out into the room. My efforts to stop the trouble by +shifting the logs were futile, as I expected them to be, and I +retreated quickly, making, I fear, no very gallant appearance as I +mopped my face and eyes. + +[Illustration: I seized the tongs and poker and began readjusting the +logs.] + +"Well," exclaimed Miss Hollister, who had rung for a servant to open +the doors and windows, "this is certainly most extraordinary. What +solution do you offer, Mr. Ames?" + +"The matter requires investigation. I can't venture an opinion until I +have made a thorough investigation. The night is perfectly quiet and +the wind is hardly responsible. I think we had better abandon the room +until I can solve this riddle in the morning." + +The prompt opening of the windows and doors caused the slow dispersion +of the smoke, but the lights in the room still shone dimly as through a +fog. + +"It's beastly," ejaculated Wiggins, coughing. "I did n't suppose +Pepperton would put a flue like that into a house. He ought to be +shot." + +"It is fortunate," said Miss Hollister, "that Mr. Ames is on the +ground. He now has a case that will test his most acute powers of +diagnosis." + +The logs that had burned so brightly before the chimney choked still +held their flames stubbornly, and I had advised against pouring water +upon them, fearing to crack the brick and stonework. We were about to +adjourn to the drawing-room; Miss Hollister and the others had in fact +reached the door, leaving me alone before the hearth. Then, as I stood +half-blinded watching the smoke pour out into the room, and more +puzzled than I had ever been before in any of my employments, the +chimney, with a deep intake of breath, began drawing the smoke upward +again; the flames caught and spread with renewed ardor; and when the +trio still loitering in the hall returned in answer to my exclamation +of surprise, the flue had recovered its composure and was behaving in a +sane and normal manner. + +There is, I imagine, nothing pertaining to the life of man (unless it +be rival climates, motor-cars or pianos) that so inspires incompetent, +irrelevant and immaterial criticism as wayward fireplaces. It is part +of my business to listen respectfully to opinions, to receive with an +appearance of credulity the theories of others; and those advanced in +Miss Hollister's library were not below the average to which I was +accustomed. + +"A swallow undoubtedly fell into the chimney-pot and then got itself +out again," suggested Cecilia. + +"The logs must have been wet. The sap had n't dried out yet," proposed +Wiggins. + +"The wood was as dry as tinder," averred Miss Hollister, not without +irritation. "And one swallow does not make a summer or a chimney +smoke. It must have been a changing current of air. I was reading a +book on ballooning the other day, and it is remarkable how the air +currents change." + +"That is quite possible, as the air cools rapidly after sunset at this +season, and that is bound to have an effect on the quality and +resistance of the atmosphere," I replied sagely. + +"Perhaps," suggested Miss Hollister, with one of those flashes of +animation that were so delightful in her, "perhaps it was a ghost! +Will you tell us, Mr. Ames, whether in your experience you have ever +known a chimney ghost?" + +As I had no opinion of my own as to what had caused the chimney's brief +aberration, I was glad to follow Miss Hollister's lead. + +"I have had several experiences with ghosts," I began, "though I should +not like you to think that I profess any special genius for the +analysis of psychical phenomena. But there was a house at Shinnecock +that was reputed to be haunted. The living-room chimney behaved +damnably. The house was one of Buffington's. Buffington, you know, +was quite capable of building a house and omitting any stairway. We +used to say at the club that he ought to have specialized in +fire-engine houses, where the men don't use stairways but slide down a +pole. Well, the living-room chimney in this particular house could n't +be made to draw with a team of elephants, and it had also the +reputation of being haunted. Strange flutings of the weirdest and most +distressing kind were often heard at night. The owner gave up in +despair and moved out, turning the house over to me. After eliminating +all other possibilities, I decided that the piping spook must be +related to the disorder in the chimney. It served two fireplaces, and +I proceeded to knock the kinks out of it so it did n't tie knots in a +plumb-line as at first; but, believe me, when it stopped smoking it +still whistled, in the most fantastical fashion. I was living in the +house, with only the servants about, and for a week gave my whole +thought to this flue. The ghostly flutist was an amateur, but he tried +his hand at every sort of tune, from 'Sally in our Alley' to the jewel +song in Faust. The whistling did n't begin till nearly midnight, and +continued usually for about an hour. I tried in every way to lure him +into the open, and I fell downstairs one night as I crept about in the +dark trying to trace the sound. And to what palpable and mundane +source do you suppose I traced that ghost?" + +"I never should guess," murmured Cecilia, "unless it was merely the +weird whistling of the wind." + +"Nothing so poetical, I'm sorry to confess. It was the butler! In his +nightly cups his soul inclined to music, and being a timid soul, +fearful of the cynical tongues of the other servants, he crawled into +the ash-dump in the cellar, which communicated with the several +fireplaces above, and there indulged himself gently upon the tuneful +reed. The night I caught him he was breathing the wild strains of +Brunhilde's Battle-Cry into the tube, and it was shuddersome, I can +tell you! I took it upon myself to discharge him on the spot, and the +grateful owner returned the next day." + +"The presence of a ghost in this house would give me the greatest +pleasure," declared Miss Hollister, who had listened intently to my +recital. "I should look upon a ghost's appearance at Hopefield Manor +as a great compliment. If any reputable, decent ghost should by any +chance take up his residence in this house, I should give him every +encouragement." + +Miss Hollister seemed to have forgotten the proposed game of billiards. +The chimney's lawless demonstration had, in fact, given a new turn to +the evening. We discussed ghosts for half an hour, and then, without +having enjoyed any opportunity for a single private word with Cecilia, +Wiggins rose to leave. He shook hands all around and bowed from the +door. It was in my mind to follow, making a pretext of walking with +him to the station or of helping him find his car; but nothing in his +good-night to me encouraged such attentions, and as I pondered, the +outer door closed upon my irresolution. + +At the stroke of ten Miss Hollister rose and excused herself. "We +breakfast at eight, Mr. Ames. I trust the hour does not conflict with +your habits." + +I assured her that the hour was wholly agreeable, and she gave me her +hand with great dignity. + +When I turned toward Cecilia she had moved to a seat close by the +hearth and was gazing dreamily into the fire, now a bed of glowing +coals. + +"It was odd," I remarked. + +"You mean the chimney?" + +"Yes. It was quite unaccountable. I confess that I never knew a +chimney's mood to change so abruptly." + +She sat silent for several minutes, and then she lifted her head and +her eyes met mine. + +"Pardon me, Mr. Ames, but did my aunt ask you here to examine the +chimneys? I did n't quite understand. We have been here only a week; +the weather has been warm, and I believe this fire had not been lighted +before to-day. You will pardon my frankness, but I can't quite +understand why my aunt invited you here if you came professionally. I +thought when you appeared this afternoon that you were a guest--nothing +more--or less." + +"You had heard nothing of any trouble with the fireplaces? Then I am +in the dark as much as you. As I understood it, I was called here to +examine the flues; but now that I think of it, she did not say +explicitly that her chimneys were behaving badly, though that was of +course implied. I naturally assumed that she summoned me here in my +professional capacity. I was a stranger to your aunt; she would hardly +have invited me otherwise." + +She turned again to the fire as though referring to it for counsel. +Her perplexity was no greater than my own. It was certainly an +extraordinary experience to be invited to a strange house where my +services had not been needed, and to find that an apparently sound +chimney had begun to smoke at once as though in mockery of my presence. + +"I imagine, however, that your aunt acts a good deal on impulse. Her +asking me here may have been only a whim." + +"Please don't imagine that your coming has not been agreeable to me," +Cecilia protested. "My aunt is quite capable of inviting a stranger to +the house. She met you, I believe, at the Asolando. I hope you +understand that it is only because I am in deep trouble, Mr. Ames, +trouble of the gravest nature, that I have ventured to speak to you in +this way of my aunt, for whom I have all respect and affection." + +She had never, I was sure, been lovelier than at this moment. Her eyes +filled, but she lifted her head proudly. Whatever the trouble might be +I was sorry for it on her own account; and if it involved Hartley +Wiggins my sympathy went out to him also. On an impulse I spoke of him. + +"I was surprised to meet Hartley Wiggins here. He 's a dear friend of +mine, you know. I thought he had gone to his ranch. He left the Hare +and Tortoise very abruptly a few nights ago just after we had dined +together. He must be stopping somewhere in the neighborhood." + +"It's quite possible. And there's an inn, you know. I fancy he drove +over from there." + +"I hadn't thought of that; the Prescott Arms, I suppose you mean." + +She nodded, but she was clearly not interested in me, and when I found +myself failing dismally to divert her thoughts to cheerfuller channels, +I rose and bade her good-night. + +The servant who had previously attended me appeared promptly when I +reached my room, bearing a tray, with biscuits and a bottle of ale. He +gave me an envelope addressed in a hand I already knew as Miss +Octavia's, and I opened and read:-- + +"The following I either detest or distrust, so kindly refrain from +mentioning them while you are a guest of Hopefield Manor:-- + + Automobiles. + Mashed Potatoes. + Whiskers. + Chopin's Concerto in E Minor (op. 11). + Bishop's Coadjutor. + Limericks. + Cats. + + OCTAVIA HOLLISTER." + + +I absorbed this with a glass of ale. There were seven items, I noted, +and I had no serious quarrel with her attitude toward any of them; but +just what these matters had to do with me or my presence in her house I +could not determine. She had referred to me in the note as a guest--I +had noted that; and I did know, moreover, that Miss Octavia Hollister +possessed a quaint and delicate humor; and I looked forward with the +pleasantest anticipations to our further meetings. + +Before I slept I threw up my window and stepped out upon a narrow +balcony that afforded a capital view of the fields and woods to the +east. The night was fine, with the sky bright with stars and moon. As +my eyes dropped from the horizon to the near landscape, I saw a man +perched on a knoll in the midst of a corn-field. He stood as rigid as +a sentry on duty, or like a forlorn commander, counting the spears of +his tattered battalions. I was not sure that he saw me, for the +balcony was slightly shadowed, but at any rate, he was sharply outlined +to my vision. His derby hat and overcoat gave him an odd appearance as +he stood brooding above the corn. Then he vanished suddenly, though, +as he retired toward the highway, I followed him for some time by the +shaking and jerking of the corn-stalks. + +I lay awake far into the night, considering the events of the day. Of +these the curious stoppage of the library chimney was the least +interesting. I doubted whether it would ever recur. The love-affair +of Hartley Wiggins was, however, a matter of importance to me, his +friend, and I determined to make every effort to see him the next day +and learn the exact status of his affair with Cecilia Hollister. + + + + +VI + +I DELIVER A MESSAGE + +I was aroused at six o'clock the next morning by the sound of +gun-shots, and springing out of bed I beheld, in an open pasture beyond +the stable-yard, the indomitable Miss Hollister engaged in the pleasing +pastime of breaking clay pigeons with a fowling-piece. Her Swedish +maid stood by with a formidable pad of paper, keeping score. A boy +pulled the trap for her, and she threw up her gun and blazed away with +a practised hand. Her small, slight, tense figure, awaiting the +launching of the target, the quick up-bring of the gun as she sighted, +and the pause, following the firing of the shot, in which she bent +forward rigidly watching the result, were features of a picture which I +would not have missed. My eye could not follow the curving disc in its +flight, but when the shot told, the bursting clay made a little patch +of dust in the air that was plainly visible from where I sat. Beyond +the stable-roofs, on a broad stretch of pasture whose aftermath made a +green field about her, and against a background of the more distant +woods' tapestry, Miss Octavia Hollister was a figure to admire. And I +will write it down here and be done with it, that it has been my good +fortune to know many delightful women, but I have never known one more +interesting or charming than Miss Octavia Hollister. The spirit of +deathless youth was in her heart; and youth's gay pennants fluttered +about her, as the reports of her gun fell cheerily upon the crisp +morning air, a rebuke and a challenge to all indolent souls. + +[Illustration: She threw up her gun and blazed away with a practised +hand.] + +I made myself presentable as quickly as possible and went forth to +report to her. She nodded pleasantly as I greeted her immediately +after she had scored a capital shot. A second gun was produced, and I +saw that it was not without satisfaction that she observed my lack of +prowess. One out of five was the best I could do, whereas she smashed +three with the greatest ease. + +On alternate mornings, she informed me, she shot glass balls with a +rifle, a sport which she declared to be superior to pigeon-shooting in +the severity of its demand upon the nerve and eye. + +"If I had known you would be up so early I should have sent coffee to +your room," she remarked as we walked toward the house. "Very likely +your lack of luck with the birds is attributable entirely to the +impoverished state of your stomach." + +Breakfast was served on a delightful sun-porch that I had not before +seen. Cecilia appeared promptly, having in fact been gathering fall +flowers for some time, I judged, from the considerable armful of +chrysanthemums, asters, dahlias and marigolds, which we found her +arranging for the table. She seemed in excellent spirits, and greeted +us most amiably. + +"I heard the artillery booming and thought an army had descended. It's +a great regret to me, Mr. Ames, that I have never been able to make any +headway at the traps. I suffer from chronic and incurable gun-shyness. +I 'm sorry archery has gone out. I think I might have done better with +the long bow." + +"Pinkle!" exclaimed Miss Hollister disdainfully. "I cured myself of +gun-shyness easily enough by having the gardener follow me about +whenever I took my daily walks, firing a gun at irregular intervals +just behind me. I was threatened with deafness when I began, but the +agitation of my tympanums by the explosions of my gun has corrected the +difficulty. I have mentioned my discovery of this remedy to a +distinguished aurist, and he is preparing a paper on the subject--not, +however, without my permission--which he expects to read shortly before +one of the most learned societies in Europe. Cecilia, the chops are +overdone again; please remind me to speak to the cook about it. If it +were not that he is so expert in detecting spurious steam-mill +corn-meal, which is constantly sold as a substitute for the Boydville +water-ground article, I should discharge him for this. An ill-broiled +chop can do much to shake one's faith in human nature. If I wanted to +eat grilled patent leather I should order it." + +In spite of her sharp observations it was quite clear to me that Miss +Hollister's was the gentlest and sweetest of natures. I fully believed +that her whims were the honest expression of a revolt against the +tedious and conventional, and nothing in my later acquaintance +disturbed this opinion. It was her privilege to do as she liked, and +if she preferred cracking clay saucers with a shot-gun to knitting or +darning stockings or gossiping, it was no one's business. + +The mail arrived and was placed by her plate before we left the table. +She opened first a bulky envelope containing cuttings from a clipping +bureau, and she mused aloud upon these as she read. + +"This persistent story of a sunken galleon off the Bolivian coast +sounds plausible, but I fear it is the work of some bright young +journalist. Our minister in that benighted country does n't take any +stock in it. I had a cable from him yesterday. If he had given the +story credence I should have gone down at once with a steamer and crew +of divers. The imaginative young newspaper men continue romancing, +however; and it costs me five cents a clipping." + +She next opened a letter that roused her to vigorous declamation. + +"Cecilia," she began, "here is a letter from that Mrs. Stanford we met +in Berne. She encloses a card that indicates her wish to be called +Mrs. Appleby now, having, I believe, spent a few months since our +meeting in one of our American States where the marital tie readily +evaporates, and shaken Stanford, whom I have heard spoken of in the +highest terms by persons of character. We live in an era of horseless +carriages, wireless telegraphy, husbandless wives and wifeless +husbands. I have hit upon a formula which I am tempted to utilize +hereafter when I meet husbandless women. When they are introduced I +shall ask:-- + + Shaken, + Or taken? + +signifying in the first instance a loss by way of Nevada, or, in the +second, through the pearlier gates of that Paradise which is the hope +of us all. Mr. Ames, as the butler has gone to sleep in the pantry, +you will kindly pass the salt." + +She had handed Cecilia a number of letters, which the girl opened and +then to my surprise meekly turned over to her aunt. Miss Hollister +surveyed them critically. + +"I thought," she remarked, "that that young Henderson who was so +attentive to you at Madrid was an impostor, and this note settles the +matter. He flirted outrageously with Hezekiah behind your back. He +asks if he may call upon you here. If he were the nephew of Colonel +Abner Henderson of Roanoke, as he represented himself to be, he would +not ask if he might call upon you, but would have appeared at once in +his proper person to pay his addresses. An unchivalrous and wobbly +character, who evidently expects you to make the advances. But such +are the youth of our time. And besides, Cecilia, his stationery leaves +much to be desired. As for these other gentlemen we need not discuss +them. Their actions must speak for them." + +Miss Hollister, having thus dismissed her niece's correspondents, rose +and led the way to the library. Cecilia seemed in no wise depressed by +her aunt's fling at Mr. Henderson, whoever he might be, but threw the +notes upon the flames that blazed merrily in the fireplace. + +I suggested immediately that as I had come to Hopefield Manor to +inspect the flues I should now be about my business; but to my surprise +Miss Hollister evinced no interest whatever in the matter. Her tone +and manner implied that the condition of her chimneys was wholly +negligible. + +"There is no haste, Mr. Ames. I have suffered all my life from the +ill-considered and hurried work of professional men. Even the +clergy--and I have enjoyed the acquaintance of many--are quite reckless +in giving opinions. I once asked the Bishop of Waxahaxie--was it +Waxahaxie, Cecilia, or Tallahassee?--well, it does n't matter +anyhow--whether he honestly believed there are no women angels. He +replied with unusual frankness for one in holy orders that he did n't +know, but added that he was sure there are angel women. Just for that +impertinence I cut in two my subscription to his cathedral +building-fund. When I ask an expert opinion of an educated person I +don't intend to be put off with mere persiflage. And to return to my +chimneys, I beg that you give me the result of your most serious +deliberations. At this hour I ride; Cecilia, will you dress +immediately and accompany me?" + +She disappeared at once and I stared mutely after her. I am by no +means an idler, and this cool indifference to the value of my time +would ordinarily have enraged me; but I believe I laughed, and when I +turned to Cecilia I found her smiling. + +"I 'm glad, Mr. Ames, that you are a person of humor. My aunt's +conduct verifies what I said to you last night--that the flues in this +house have given us no trouble; that they have indeed had little chance +to do so in the short time we have spent here. It is true that this +one acted queerly last night, and I have wondered about its temporary +sulkiness a good deal. It will be well, of course, for you to go over +it, and all the others in the house. It is no joke that my aunt is a +believer in thoroughness, and one of these days, when she is ready to +talk of chimneys, she will subject you to a most rigid examination." + +"One of these days? Why, I have looked at the time-table, and it is my +present intention to take the 12:03 into town. I have appointments at +my office for the afternoon. I assure you, Miss Hollister, that I 'm a +man of engagements, particularly at this season." + +I remembered what Jewett had told me of Fortner, the painter, and his +detention at Newport by Miss Octavia Hollister. I had no intention of +being immured in any such fashion, and I was about to protest further +when Cecilia took a step toward me, and after a glance at the door +spoke in a low tone and with great earnestness. + +"Mr. Ames, I have every reason to believe that you are a gentleman, and +in that confident belief I 'm going to ask a favor of you. You have +said that you know Mr. Hartley Wiggins well." + +"I know no man better. You might not have inferred it from his manner +last night, but he was undoubtedly surprised and embarrassed by my +presence, and did not act quite like himself."' + +"I think I understand the cause of that. If I should ask you to see +him to-day and give him a message for me, could you do so?" + +"It will be an honor to serve you; and a very simple matter, as I +should see him on my own account if he is still in the neighborhood." + +"He is doubtless at the Prescott Arms. My message is a verbal one. +Please urge him not to make any effort to see me, and not to call here +again. But at the same time, as the chimney smoked just as we were +about to be left alone last night, I think--I think"--she hesitated a +moment--"You may say that his interests have not been jeopardized by +his temerity in calling." + +In her pause before concluding this curious commission her eyes +searched mine deeply, and I felt that she had not lightly entrusted me +with this singular errand. Her dark eyes held mine an instant after +she had spoken; then she smiled, and her face showed relief. + +"Ask for anything you want. Aunt Octavia despises motors, so there 's +no car here, but you will find plenty of horses and traps. Order +whatever pleases you. I shall expect to meet you at dinner if not at +luncheon--and so"--she smiled again--"will Aunt Octavia." + +She nodded to me from the door, and I heard her running lightly +upstairs. + +Left to my own devices I rang the bell and ordered the library fire +extinguished and the hearth cleaned. This required a little time; but +the house man obeyed me readily, and soon, clad in my professional +overalls and jumper, I was going carefully over the flue whose behavior +had been so unaccountable the previous night. Guided by the servant I +inspected the three fireplaces in the upper chambers that were served +by flues in this chimney and finally dropped my torch and plumb-line +from the chimney-pot. Never in all my experience had I seen better +flues; but remembering my ghost at Shinnecock, I had the ashes thrown +out of the dump in the cellar and found the chute in perfect order. I +learned by inquiry that the other flues worked perfectly, but I +nevertheless scrutinized them carefully. My freedom of the house +afforded an excellent opportunity for a study of its beautiful +construction. It was modern in every sense, with no dark, mysterious +corners in which goblins might lurk. I prowled about with increasing +admiration for Pepperton, and with a deepening sense of my own failure +in the art which he adorned. + +My professional labors were finished. I was quite ready for Miss +Hollister's most searching inquiries. As for the library flue, I had +decided that a little care in piling the logs in the hearth would +obviate the possibility of any recurrence of the difficulty. And I +thereupon hurried to my room, and after a tub (my vocation encouraged +frequent tubbing) chose from the stable a neat trap for one horse. +Thus equipped I set out to find Wiggins. + +The Prescott Arms is an inn that sprang into being with the advent of +motoring. The tourist is advised of his approach to it by signs swung +at the crossways, and its plaster and timber walls are in plain sight +from one of the excellent state roads. Gasoline and other liquids are +offered there; one may have tea or an ampler meal on short notice; and +a few guests may be lodged in case of necessity. I remembered it well, +having several times found it a haven on motor-flights with friends. +As I drove into the entrance I saw Wiggins pacing the long veranda. He +waved a hand and came out to meet me, and when I had rid myself of the +trap he suggested that we take a walk. + +[Illustration: As I drove into the entrance.] + +His manner was not cordial, and he wore the haggard look of a man on +bad terms with his pillow. I attributed his appearance to +preoccupation with his love-affair. When we had withdrawn a little way +from the inn he turned on me sharply. + +"Well?" he demanded. + +"Well," I laughed. + +"Oh, you needn't take that tone about it! Your being here is something +that requires explanation; and your being _there_"--he flung out his +arm toward Hopefield Manor--"your presence there is not a laughing +matter." + +"My dear Wiggins, I came here in a spirit of friendship, and you treat +me like a pickpocket. I must say that if you had not acted like a clam +the other night at the club, but had told me what was in the wind, we +might not be meeting now like ancient enemies instead of old and +intimate friends." + +He vouchsafed no reply, but threw himself down under a scarlet maple +and began to whittle a stick, while I went on with my story. + +"I met Miss Octavia Hollister in the Asolando the day after our last +dinner at the club. I had dropped into the tea-room merely to look at +the place again. I had never seen her before in all my life. She is a +whimsical old lady--but a lady, you must admit that--and we exchanged +cards. On learning my occupation she at once declared that I must come +up here to look at her chimneys. She made an appointment by mail for +yesterday afternoon. It is not my fault that she treated me like a +guest, or that she introduced me of necessity to her niece Cecilia. +And now I have finished my work, and after I have made my report I +shall probably not meet her again. As for Miss Cecilia Hollister, I +can only say, my dear Wiggins, that she is a rarely beautiful woman, +and that if you wish to marry her you have my very best wishes for your +success and happiness." + +"It struck me that you were pretty well established there," he blurted. +"I confess that I took it for granted you were not there wholly on a +professional errand; and I won't deny, Ames, that I was not pleased to +see you." + +"You honor me in assuming that I might aspire to the hand of so +splendid a woman as Cecilia Hollister; but, my dear Wiggins, I tell you +I never laid eyes on her until last night." + +"But you had been to the Asolando," he persisted, hacking away doggedly +at his stick. + +"Of course I had. I told you I had. I told you the whole story. But +I did not see Cecilia Hollister there. She was n't there! I fancy +that after you saw her there last spring and became infatuated with her +and followed her to Europe instead of going to Dakota to harvest your +blooming wheat--after that bit of history she never returned to the +Asolando. Your lack of frankness in all this has pained me. And you +left it for a gossiping chap like Jewett to tell me the whole story. +And to cap your duplicity you sneaked out of the club the other night +while Jewett was talking to me and let the club people think you were +bound for your ranch. I call it rather low down, Wiggins, after all +the years we have known each other. My slate is clean; how about +yours?" + +He threw the stick at a sparrow whose chirp irritated him from a stone +fence beyond us, and turned toward me a countenance on which dejection, +humiliation, and chagrin were written large. + +"Damn it all!" he bellowed, "I believe I 'm losing my mind. I don't +know what I 'm doing. That old woman up there is responsible for all +this. She 's as crazy as a March hare,--crazier! And she 's made a +prisoner of that girl. I tell you Cecilia Hollister is the grandest +girl in the world." + +"Go it, son! Those descendants of Cæsar's legions at work in the road +down there are pausing to listen. Try to affect calmness if you don't +feel it. I agree to all you say of Miss Cecilia. And please get it +into your noddle that I have no intention of becoming your rival for +her hand. But I must beg of you also not to speak in such terms of her +aunt. She 's the most delightful woman I ever met." + +"Mad, I tell you, quite mad!" + +"Wise,--with the most beautiful wisdom; you simply don't understand +her." + +"I know all I want to about her. If she were not insane she would not +build a wall of mystery about her niece and keep me camping out here +not knowing where I stand. I tell you, Ames, that woman is a +malevolent being; she 's perfectly fiendish." + +There is no way of answering a man in this humor save by laughter; and +I laughed long and loud, to the consternation of the Italian +road-laborers who were now swallowing their luncheons a short distance +away from us. + +Wiggins sulked awhile and then addressed me seriously. + +"I didn't tell you I was going abroad, because the situation made +explanations difficult. I could hardly tell you that I was about to +race over Europe after a waitress I had seen in a tea-room. You 're +always so confoundedly suspicious. It would have an odd sound even now +if she were--well, if she were a waitress instead of what you know her +to be. And my animosity toward Miss Octavia Hollister is due to the +fact that after I had been as courteous to her all summer long as I +could, and thought myself tolerably established in her mind as a decent +person and a gentleman, she suddenly shuts Cecilia up in that +house,--bought it on purpose, I fancy,--and Cecilia herself is +compelled to take on an air of mystery, warning me to keep away, +suggesting the darkest possibilities, but giving me no hint whatever of +the reason for her conduct." + +"Let us confine ourselves to Miss Octavia for a moment. While you were +acting as cavalier to her party abroad she was friendly; then she +suddenly changed. Now there must be some explanation of that." + +"Well, for one thing, she flew off at a tangent about my ancestors. We +were in Berlin on the Fourth of July and got to talking about the +American revolution. She asked me what my people had done for the +patriotic cause. The painful fact is that most of them were Tories; +but my great-grandfather broke with his father and brothers, joined +Washington's army, and fought through the whole business. But to save +the feelings of the rest of them, who went to England till it was all +over, he changed his name. There's no mention of him in the war +records anywhere. I've had experts working on it, but they can't find +any trace of him. He was greatly embittered by the estrangement from +his people, and though he had a farm in this very neighborhood +somewhere--I 've thought sometime I 'd look it up and try to get hold +of it--he never mentioned his military experiences even to his own +children. Usually Miss Hollister changes front if you give her time. +I've heard her say that we'd have been better off if we'd never broken +with England; but she persists in prodding that weak place in my armor." + +"That's very dark, Wiggy. If she keeps it up you'll have to dig up +your great-grandfather someway. The spiritualists might call him on +long distance. But let us turn to Miss Cecilia. I don't for a moment +believe that she is a victim of ancestor worship. The perambulator +rampant adorns the Hollister shield to the exclusion of everything +else. From what you say Cecilia has not repelled you; on the other +hand she has frankly given you to understand that you must not press +your suit at this time for reasons she sees fit to withhold. A little +more patience, a little calm deliberation and less violent language, +and in due course the girl is yours. Now what do you fancy is the +cause of Cecilia's abrupt change of attitude?" + +He refused to meet my eyes, but turned away as though to conceal an +embarrassment whose cause I could not surmise. When he spoke it was in +a voice husky with emotion. + +"Am I a cad? Am I beneath the contempt of decent people?" + +"It's possible, Wiggy, that you are. Go on with it." + +"Well, you know," he began diffidently, "Cecilia has a sister." + +I grinned, but his scowl brought me to myself again. + +"Yes. And her name is Hezekiah. The name pleases me." + +"She was with Miss Octavia in her gallop over Europe, so I saw a good +deal of her necessarily. She is younger than Cecilia; she's a good +deal of a kid,--the sort that never grows up, you know." + +"Just like her aunt Octavia!" + +"Bah! Don't mention that woman. Hezekiah is a very pretty girl; and I +suppose,--well, when you are thrown with a girl that way, seeing her +constantly"-- + +I clapped my hand on his knee as the light began to dawn upon me. + +"You old rascal, you don't need to add a single word! I dare say you +are guilty. I can see it in your eye. After waiting till you reached +years of discretion before beginning an attack upon womankind, you +began mowing them down in platoons. So they come running now that you +'ve got a start. Oh, Wiggy, and I believed you immune! And you 're +trying to drive 'em tandem." + +The thing was funny, knowing Wiggins as I did, and I gave expression to +my mirth; but his fierce demeanor quickly brought me back to the +serious contemplation of his difficulty. + +"That, you shameless wretch, would be a sufficient reason for Miss +Octavia's aloofness,--your double-faced dealing with her nieces? You +confirm my impression that she is a wise woman. And Cecilia, I take +it, may be deeply embarrassed by her sister's infatuation for you. You +certainly have made a tangle of things, you heart-wrecker, you +conscienceless deceiver! But where, may I ask, does this Hezekiah keep +herself?" + +"Oh, she's with her father. They have a bungalow over the hills there, +several miles from Hopefield Manor." + +"Well, I hope you are no longer toying with her affections. Of course +you don't see her any more?" + +"Well," he mumbled, "I did see her this morning. But I could n't help +it. It was the merest chance. I met her in the road when I was out +taking a walk. She 's always turning up,--she's the most unaccountable +young person." + +"I suppose, Wiggy, that if you stand in the road and Miss Hezekiah +Hollister strolls by on her way to market, you fancy that she is +pursuing you. As Miss Octavia has well said, this is not a chivalrous +age. I 'm deeply disappointed in you. Your conduct and your attitude +toward this trusting young girl are disgraceful." + +He rose and flung up his arms despairingly. It was much easier to +laugh at Wiggins than to be angry at him; but I recalled the message +which Cecilia had entrusted to me, and this, I thought, might give him +some comfort. + +"Miss Cecilia asked me this morning to say to you that you must not try +to see her again; you must keep away from the house." + +This obviously increased his dejection. + +"But," I added, "I was to say that she thought nothing had yet occurred +to interfere with your ambitions, as you were not permitted to see her +alone last night. The chimney, you may remember, began playing pranks +just at the moment when Miss Hollister and I were about to adjourn to +the billiard-room, so a tête-à-tête between you and Cecilia was +impossible." + +"She told you to see me?" + +"She certainly did. I confess that my message does n't seem luminous, +but I have a feeling that she meant to be kind. It may be that she is +giving you time to disentangle yourself from the delectable Hezekiah's +meshes. I can't elucidate; I merely convey information. But answer +honestly if you can: has Cecilia ever by word or act refused you?" + +"No," he replied grimly; "she 's never given me the chance!" + +He asked me to luncheon, and on the way back to the inn, after +inquiring my plans for returning to town, he proposed that I delay my +departure until the following day. What he wanted, and he put it +bluntly, was a friend at court, and as I had seemingly satisfied him of +my entire good faith and of my devotion to his interests, he begged +that I prolong my stay in Miss Hollister's house, giving as my excuse +the condition of the chimneys of Hopefield Manor. He brushed aside my +plea of other engagements and appealed to our old friendship. He was +taking his troubles hard, and I felt that he really needed counsel and +support in the involved state of his affairs. I did not see how my +continued presence under Miss Hollister's roof could materially assist +him, and the thought of remaining there when there was no work to be +done was repugnant to my sense of professional honor; but he was so +persistent that I finally yielded. + +While we ate luncheon I sought by every means to divert his thoughts to +other channels. After we were seated in the dining-room four other men +followed, exercising considerable care in placing themselves as far +from one another as possible. A few moments later a motor hummed into +the driveway, and we heard its owner ordering his chauffeur to return +to town and hold himself subject to telephone call. This latest +arrival appeared shortly in the dining-room, and surveying the rest of +us with a disdainful air, sought a table in the remotest corner of the +room. Others appeared, until eight in all had entered. The presence +of these men at this hour, their air of aloofness, and the care they +exercised in isolating themselves, interested me. They appeared to be +gentlemen; they were, indeed, suggestive of the ampler metropolitan +world; and one of them was unmistakably a foreigner. + +While Wiggins appeared to ignore them, I was conscious that he reviewed +the successive arrivals with every manifestation of contempt. One of +these glum gentlemen seemed familiar; I could not at once recall him, +but something in his manner teased my memory for a moment before I +placed him. Then it dawned upon me that he was the third man I had met +in the field overhanging the garden after my eavesdropping experience +the day before. I thought it as well, however, not to mention this +fact, or to speak of the man I had seen so grimly posted in the midst +of the cornfield. I was an observer, a looker-on, at Hopefield, and my +immediate business was the collecting of information. + +"Will you kindly tell me, Wiggy, who these strange gentlemen are and +just what has brought them here at this hour? They seem greatly +preoccupied, and the last one, in particular, surveyed you with a +murderous eye. If we could be translated to some such inn as this in +the environs of Paris, I should conclude that a duel was imminent and +that these gentlemen were assembling to meet after their coffee +to-morrow morning for an affair of honor." + +"I know them; they are guests of the inn. Most of them were more or +less companions in our procession across Europe last summer. The one +in the tan suit is Henderson; you must have heard of him. The short +dark chap of atrabilous countenance is John Stewart Dick, who pretends +to be a philosopher. As for the others"-- + +He dismissed them with a jerk of the head. My wits struggled with his +explanation. It is my way to wish to reduce information to plain terms. + +"Are these gentlemen, then, your rivals for the hand of Miss Cecilia +Hollister? If so, they are a solemn band of suitors, I must confess." + +"You have hit it, Ames. They are suitors, assembled from all parts of +the world." + +"Nice-looking fellows, except the chap with the monocle, who has just +ordered rather more liquor than a gentleman should drink at this hour." + +"That is Lord Arrowood. I have feared at times that Miss Octavia +favored him." + +"Possibly, but not likely. But how long is this thing going to last? +If you fellows are going to hang on here until Miss Cecilia Hollister +has chosen one of you for her husband, I shudder for your nerves. I +imagine that any one of these gentlemen is likely to begin shooting +across his plate at any minute. Such a situation would become +intolerable very quickly if I were in the game and forced to lodge +here." + +"I hope," replied Wiggins with heat, "that you don't imagine these +fellows can crowd me out! I 've paid for a month's lodging in advance, +and if you will stand by me I 'm going to win." + +"Spoken like a man, my dear Wiggins! You may count on me to the sweet +or bitter end, even if I pull down all the superb chimneys with which +Pepperton adorned that house up yonder." + +He silently clasped my hand. A little later I telephoned from the inn +to my office explaining my absence and instructing my assistant to +visit several pressing clients; and I instructed the valet at the Hare +and Tortoise to send me a week's supply of linen and an odd suit or two. + +At about three o'clock I left Wiggins in first-rate spirits and set out +on my return to Hopefield Manor. I felt the eyes of the eight other +suitors, who were scattered at intervals along the verandah, glued to +my back as I drove out of the inn yard. + + + + +VII + +NINE SILK HATS CROSS A STILE + +A girl in a white sweater sat on a stone wall and munched a red apple; +but this is to anticipate. + +I had made a wrong turn on leaving the Prescott Arms, and I came out +presently near Katonah village. I got my bearings of a shopkeeper and +started again for Hopefield Manor; but the mid-afternoon was warm, and +the hills were steep, and as Miss Hollister's admirable cob showed +signs of weariness, I drove into a fence-corner and loosened the mare's +check. On a sunny slope several hundred yards above the highway lay an +orchard, advertised to the larcenous eye by the ruddiest of red apples. +Not in many years had I robbed an orchard, and I felt irresistibly +drawn toward the gnarled trees, which were still, in their old age, +abundantly fruitful. + +When I reached the orchard I found it quite isolated, with only fallow +fields, seamed with stone fences, stretching on either hand. A spring +near by sent the slenderest of brooks flashing down the slope. There +was no house in sight anywhere, and the neglected orchard flaunted its +bright fruit with pathetic bravado. I drew down a bough and plucked my +first apple, tasted, and found it good. At my palate's first +responsive titillation, something whizzed past my ear, and following +the flight of the missile, I saw an apple of goodly size fall and roll +away into the grass. I had imagined myself utterly alone, and even +now, as I looked guiltily around, no one was in sight. The apple had +passed my ear swiftly and at an angle quite un-Newtonian. It had been +fairly aimed at my head, and the law of gravitation did not account for +it. As I continued my scrutiny of the landscape, I was addressed by a +voice whose accents were not objurgatory. Rather, the tone was +good-natured and indulgent, if not indeed a trifle patronizing. The +words were these:-- + + "Soup of the evening, beautiful soup!" + + +It was then that, lifting my eyes, I beheld, sitting lengthwise of the +wall, with her feet drawn comfortably under her, a girl in a white +sweater, bareheaded, munching an apple. There was no question of +identity: it was the girl whose head behind the cashier's grill of the +Asolando had interested me on the occasion of my second visit to the +tea-room. In soliciting my attention by reciting a line of verse, she +had merely followed the rule of the tea-room in like circumstances. +The casting of the apple at my head possessed the virtue of novelty, +but now that her shot was fired and her line spoken, she addressed +herself again to her apple. Her manner implied indifference; but her +unconcern was that of a trout not wishing to discourage the fisherman, +feigning a languid interest in a familiar fly dropped at its nose. +While I tried to think of something to say, I pecked at my own apple, +but kept an eye on her. She concluded her repast calmly and flung away +the core. + +"I mentioned soup," she remarked. "The courses are mixed. We have +partaken of fruit. Are you fish, flesh, fowl, or good red herring?" + +"Daughter of Eve, I will be anything you like. I 'm obliged for the +apple, and I apologize for having entered Eden uninvited." + +"It's not my Eden. Nobody invited me. But it's not too much to say +that these apples are grand." + +"I 'm glad we 're both in the same boat. I 'm a trespasser myself. I +don't even know the name of the owner. But if you have had only one +apple, two more are coming to you, if you follow Atalanta's precedent." + +"I don't follow precedents, and I 've forgotten the name of the boy who +threw the apples in the race. It does n't matter, though; nothing +matters very much." + +Her hands clasped her knees. Her skirt was short, and I was conscious +that she wore tan shoes. She continued to regard me with lazy +curiosity. She seemed younger than at the Asolando. Not more than +eighteen times had apples reddened on the bough in her lifetime! She +was even slenderer and more youthful in her sweater than in the snowy +vestments of the Asolando. Her hair which, in the glow of the lamp at +Asolando cash-desk had been golden, was to-day burnished copper, and +was brushed straight back from her forehead and tied with a black +ribbon. + +"I quite agree with your philosophy. Nothing is of great importance." + +"So it's not your orchard?" she asked. + +"The thought flatters me. I own no lands nor ships at sea. I 'm a +chimney doctor, and if necessary I 'll apologize for it." + +"You needn't submit testimonials; I take the swallows out of my own +chimneys." + +"That requires a deft hand, and I 'm sure you 're considerate of the +swallows." + +"You may come up here and sit on the wall if you care to. I saw you +driving in a trap. I hope your horse is n't afraid of motors; motors +speed scandalously on that road." + +"I am not in the least worried about my horse. It's borrowed. As you +remarked, this is a nice orchard. I like it here." + +"If you are going to be silly, you will find me little inclined to +nonsense." + +"Shall we talk of the Asolando? I haven't been back since I saw you +there. And yet,--let me see, is n't this your day there?" + +She seemed greatly amused; and her laughter rose with a fountain-like +spontaneity, and fell, a splash of musical sound, on the mellow air of +the orchard. She had changed her position as I joined her, sitting +erect, and kicking her heels lazily against the wall. + +"Mr. Chimney Man, something terrible happened just after you left that +afternoon. I was bounced, fired; I lost my job." + +"Incredible! I 'm sure it was not for any good cause. I can testify +that you were a model of attention; you were surpassingly discreet. +You repelled me in the most delicate manner when I intimated that I +should come often on the days that you made the change." + +"The sad part of it was that that was not only my last day but my +first! I had never been there before, except for a nibble now and then +when I was in town. But I could n't stand it. It was like being in +jail; in fact, I think jail would be preferable. But I 'm glad I spent +that one day there. It proved what I have long believed, that I am a +barbarian. That poetry on the walls of the Asolando made me tired, not +that it is n't good poetry, but that the walls of a tea-shop are no +place for it. I always suspect that people who like their poetry +framed, and who have uplift mottoes stuck in mirrors where they can +study them while they brush their hair in the morning, never really get +any poetry inside of them. You need a place like this for poetry,--an +old orchard, with blue sky and a crumbly wall to sit on. I tried the +Asolando as a lark, really, not because I 'm deeply entertained by that +sort of thing. They dispensed with my company because I remarked to +one of the silly girls who are making the Asolando their life-work that +I thought the English Pre-Raphaelites had carried the dish-face rather +too far. The girl to whom I uttered this heresy was so shocked she +dropped a tea-cup,--you know how brittle everything is in there,--and I +came home. You were really the only adventure I got out of my day +there. And I did n't find you entirely satisfactory." + +"Thank you, Francesca, for these confidences. And having lost your +position you are now free to roam the hills and dream on orchard walls. +Your scheme of life is to my liking. I can see with half an eye that +you were born for the open, and that the walls of no prison-house can +ever hold you again." + +She nodded a dreamy acquiescence. Then she turned two very brown eyes +full upon me and demanded:-- + +"What is your name, please?" + +I mentioned it. + +"And you doctor chimneys? That sounds very amusing." + +"I 'm glad you like it. Most people think it absurd." + +"What are you doing here? There's not a chimney in sight." + +"Oh, I have a commission in the neighborhood. Hopefield Manor; you may +have heard of Miss Hollister's place." + +"Of course; every one knows of her." + +"And now that I think of it, it was she about whom you asked in the +Asolando that afternoon. You wanted to know what she said about the +tea-room." + +"I remember perfectly." + +She was quiet for a moment, then she threw back her head and laughed +that rare laugh of hers. + +"You might let me into the joke." + +"It would n't mean anything to you. I have a lot of private jokes that +are for my own consumption." + +"Your way of laughing is adorable. I hope to hear more of it. In the +Asolando you repulsed me in a manner that won my admiration, but I +venture to say now that, if you roam these pastures, I am the grass +beneath your feet; and if yonder tuneful water be sacred to you, I sit +beside the brook to learn its song." + +"You talk well, sir, but from your tone I fear you can't forget that we +met first in the Asolando. That day of my life is past, and I am by no +means what you might call an Asolandad. I don't seem to impress you +with that fact. I 'm a human being, not to be picked like a red apple, +or trampled upon like grass, or listened to as though I were a foolish +little brook. I 'm greatly given to the highway, and I prefer macadam. +I like asphalt pavements, too, for the matter of that. I should love a +motor, but lacking the coin I pedal a bicycle. My wheel lies down +there in the bushes. You see, Mr. Chimney Man, I am a plain-spoken +person and have no intention of deceiving you. My name was Francesca +for one day only. It may interest you to know that my real name is +Hezekiah." + +"Hezekiah!" + +I must have shouted it; she seemed startled by my violence. + +"You have pronounced it correctly," she remarked. + +"Then you are Cecilia's sister and Miss Hollister's niece." + +"Guilty." + +"And you live?"-- + +"Over there somewhere, beyond that ridge," and she waved her hand +vaguely toward the village and laughed again. + +"Pray tell me what this particular joke is: it must be immensely +funny," I urged, struggling with these new facts. + +"Oh, it's Aunt Octavia! She will be the death of me yet! You know the +girl who waited on Aunt Octavia that afternoon took all that artistic +nonsense as seriously as a funeral, and she told me after you left, +with the greatest horror, that Aunt Octavia had asked for a cocktail!" +That laugh rippled off again to carry joy along the planet-trails above +us. "But you know," she resumed, "that Aunt Octavia never drank a +cocktail in her life,--and would n't! She does n't know a cocktail +from soothing syrup! She pines for adventures. She is just like a +boarding-school girl who has read her first romance of the young +American engineer in a South American republic, shooting the insurgents +full of tortillas and marrying the president's dark-eyed daughter. She +reads pirate books and is crazy about buried chests and pieces of +eight. And they say I 'm just like her! She is the most perfectly +killing person in the world!" + +Hezekiah laughed again. + +So this was the child whose devotion had rendered Wiggins so miserable, +and the sister of whom Cecilia Hollister and her aunt had spoken so +strangely. I had not suspected it. She was as unlike Cecilia as +possible, and the difference lay in her independent spirit and bubbling +humor. Her individuality was more pronounced. You took her, without +debate, on her own ground; and though she had expressed a preference +for macadam, she seemed related to the days when maidens sat on sunny +walls and were not disappointed in their expectation that light-footed +youths, or mayhap winged sons of the Olympians, would reward patient +waiting. But at the same time she struck the note of modernity. Her +flings at the Asolando were reassuring; she was a healthy-minded, +vigorous young woman whose nature protested against affectation and +pose. She rebelled against closed doors, whether those of town or +country. I am myself much of a cockney, and not averse to asphalt and +streets ablaze with electric banners. My imagination sprang to meet +this Hezekiah. I had, in fact, a feeling that I had waited for her +somewhere in some earlier incarnation. She jumped down from the wall, +shook three apples from a tree, and sustained them in the air with the +deftness and certainty of practised _jonglerie_. Her absorption was +complete, and when she wearied of this sport, she flung the apples +away, one after the other, with a boy's free swing of the arm. Herrick +would have delighted in her; Dobson would have spun her bright hair +into a rondeau; but only Aldrich, with a twinkle in his eye, could have +brought her up to date in a dozen chiming couplets. I felt that no +matter how much one admired and respected this Hezekiah one would never +deal with her in the phrases of drawing-rooms. Her charming +inadvertences made this impossible; and it was the part of discretion +to await her own initiative. + +She had gone on up to the crest of the orchard, and stood clearly +limned against the sky, her hands thrust into the pockets of her +sweater. She appeared to be intent upon something that lay beyond, and +half turned her head and summoned me by whistling. I liked this better +than the quotation method of address. It was a clear shrill pipe, that +whistle, and she emphasized it further by a peremptory wave of her arm. +When I stood beside her I was surprised to find that the site commanded +a wide area, including the unmistakable roofs and chimneys of Hopefield +Manor half a mile distant. + +[Illustration: She emphasized it further by a peremptory wave of her +arm.] + +"You will see something funny down there in a minute. They are out of +sight now, but there 's a stile--the kind with steps, just beyond those +trees. It's in a path that leads from the Prescott Arms to Aunt +Octavia's. Look!" + +My eyes discovered the stile. It was set in a wall that was, she told +me, the boundary dividing Hopefield Manor from another estate nearer +our position. + +Suddenly a silk hat bobbed in the path beyond the stile; it rose as its +owner mounted the steps; it paused an instant when the top of the stile +was reached; then quickly descended, and came toward us, a black blot +above a black coat. I was about to ask her the meaning of this +apparition when a second silk hat bobbed in the path and then rose like +its predecessor, descending and keeping on its way until hidden from +our sight by shrubbery. A third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, +eighth, and ninth followed. Nine gentlemen in silk hats crossing a +stile in a lonely pasture between woodlands; so much was plain to the +eye from our vantage-ground; but I groped blindly for an explanation of +this spectacle. The bobbing hats and dark coats suggested wanderers +from some dark Plutonian cave, bent upon mischief to the upper world. +Their step was jaunty; they moved as though drilled to the same cadence. + +We waited a moment, expecting that another figure might join the +strange procession, but nine was the correct count. I looked down to +find Hezekiah checking them off on the fingers of her slim brown hand. + +"Has there been a funeral and are they the returning pall-bearers?" I +inquired. + +"Not yet," she replied. + +Her face showed amusement; the twitching of her lips encouraged hope +that another of those delightful laughs was imminent. + +"It was positively weird," I said. "It reminds me of a dream I used to +have, when I was a boy, of a long line of Chinamen running along the +top of a great wall,--an interminable procession. I must have dreamed +that dream a hundred times. I could hear the pigtails of those fellows +flapping against their backs as they trotted along, and the soft +scraping of their sandals on the smooth surface of the wall. But the +pot hats are equally eerie and unaccountable to my dull +twentieth-century senses. Pray tell me the answer, Hezekiah." + +"Oh, those are Cecilia's suitors. They've been to Aunt Octavia's to +tea. They 're staying at the Prescott Arms probably." + +"They 're terribly formal. I can't get rid of the impression of +sombreness created by those fellows. You 'd hardly expect them to +tramp cross country in those duds. Such grandeur should go on wheels." + +"Oh, they are afraid of Aunt Octavia! She won't allow a motor on her +grounds; and I suppose they 're afraid they might break some other rule +if they went on any kind of wheels. She 's rather exacting, you know, +my aunt Octavia." + +"I was at the Prescott for luncheon to-day, and I must have seen these +gentlemen there." + +"Oh, _you_ were at the Prescott?" + +Almost for the first time her manner betrayed surprise; but mischief +danced in the brown eyes. With Wiggins's confession as to the havoc he +had played with Hezekiah's confiding heart fresh in my memory, I felt a +delicacy about telling her that it was to see Wiggins that I had +visited the inn. But to my surprise she introduced the subject of +Wiggins immediately, and with laughter struggling for one of those +fountain-like splashes that were so beguiling. + +"Oh, Wiggy is staying there! Do you know Wiggy?" + +"Know Wiggy, Hezekiah? I know no man better." + +"Wiggy is no end of fun, isn't he? I've heard him speak of you. You +are his friend the Chimney Man. He was the last man over the stile. +Did you notice that he lingered a moment longer at the top than the +others? From his being the ninth man I imagine that he was the last to +leave the house, and he probably felt that this set him apart from the +others. Wiggy is nothing if not shy and retiring." + +A heart-broken, love-lorn girl did not speak here. She whistled softly +to herself as we descended. The air was cooling rapidly, and the west +was hung in scarlet and purple and gold. The horse neighed in the road +below, and I knew that I must be on my way to the Manor. + +"Hezekiah," I said, when I had drawn her bicycle from its hiding-place, +"you 'd better leave your wheel here and let me drive you home. It's +late and there 's frost in the air. I imagine it's some distance to +your house." + +"Thank you, Mr. Chimney Man; but it is much farther to Aunt Octavia's, +for you have to make a long circuit around the hills. And besides, as +we met in the orchard, it would be altogether too commonplace a +conclusion of our adventure for you to drive me home behind a mere +horse. But tell me this: what do you think of Wiggy's chances?" + +"Of winning your sister? I should say from my knowledge of Wiggins +that he is a man much given to staying in a game once the cards are +shuffled." + +She nodded, standing beside her wheel, her hands on the bars. Her +manner was contemplative; her eyes for a moment were deep, shadowless +pools of reverie. + +"Then you think he knows the game?" + +There seemed to be something beneath the surface meaning of her words, +but I answered:-- + +"Wiggy's affairs have been few, and while he may not know the game in +all its intricacies, he has a shrewd if rather slow mind, and besides, +he has asked my help in the matter." + +"One of these speak-for-yourself-John situations, then? Well, I should +say, Mr. Chimney Man, I should say"-- + +She made ready for flight, looking ahead to be sure of a clear +thoroughfare. + +"I should say," she concluded, settling her skirts, "that that +indicates considerable intelligence on Wiggy's part." + +The tires rolled smoothly away; the gravel crunching, the pebbles +popping. The white sweater clasped a straight back snugly; then +suddenly, as the wheels gained momentum, she bent low for a spurt, and +her rapidly receding figure became a gray blur in the purple dusk. + + + + +VIII + +CECILIA'S SILVER NOTE-BOOK + +Miss Octavia was in the gayest spirits at dinner that night, and struck +afield at once with one of her amusing dicta. + +"Human beings," she said, "may be divided into two groups,--interesting +and uninteresting; but idiots abound in both classes." + +Cecilia and I discussed this with more or less gravity, until we had +exhausted the possibilities, Miss Octavia following with apparent +interest and setting us off at a new tangent when our enthusiasm +lagged. She referred in no way whatever to her chimneys, nor did she +ask me how I had spent the day. I felt the pleading of Cecilia's eyes +that I should accept the situation as it stood, and having already +agreed to Wiggins's suggestion that I abide in Miss Hollister's house +as a spy,--for this was the ignoble fact,--I felt the threads of +conspiracy binding me fast. So far as my hostess was concerned, I was +now less a guest than a member of the household. + +The variety of subjects that Miss Octavia suggested was amazing. From +aeronautics to the negro question, from polar exploration to the +political conditions in Bulgaria, she passed with the jauntiest +insouciance and apparently with a considerable fund of information to +support her positions. She knew many people in all walks of life. I +remember that she spoke with the greatest freedom of the Governor of +Indiana, whom she had met on a railway journey. She quoted this +gentleman's utterances with keenest zest. His anecdotal range she +declared to be the widest and raciest she had ever encountered in a +considerable acquaintance with public characters. She thought the +Hoosier statesman eminently fitted by reason of his acute sense of +humor for the office of president. + +"That man," said Miss Octavia, "was splendidly equipped for handling +the most perplexing affairs of state. It seemed absurd that his public +services should be limited to the petty business of a commonwealth +whose chief products are pawpaws, persimmons, and politics. The +governor told me that before his election he had been sorely beset by +reformers. They had teased him persistently to express his views on +the most absurd questions. They wanted him to promise all manner of +things before they gave him their support. And finally, to appease +them, he answered that he would combine their questions in one and +reply to all that, the earth being round, he would, if elected, do all +in his power to make it square. This he found to be perfectly +satisfactory to the reformers. Solomon was a mere tyro in wisdom +compared with that man. You would n't expect so much sagacity in one +who, by his own frank confession, had been raised on fried meat, and +who declared that if grand opera were attempted in his state he would +suspend the writ of habeas corpus and call out the militia to suppress +it." + +I was not at all sure whether the governor whom she quoted with so +great delight was an actual person or a myth upon whom Miss Octavia +hung her own whimsicalities; but as if to rebuke my skepticism, she +dwelt on this personage at considerable length, inviting my own and +Cecilia's questions as to her knowledge of him. + +"I didn't suppose," remarked Cecilia provocatively, "that Indiana was +really a place that you could go to on trains, but a kind of imaginary +kingdom like Eppenwelzen-Sarkeld or Grunewald or Zenda, or an extinct +place in Asia where lions crouch upon the ruins in the moonlight." + +"Indiana," said Miss Octavia sternly, "is a commonwealth for which I +have always had the greatest veneration, and which, in due course, I +hope to visit. In the early seventies my father, the late Hezekiah +Hollister, invested a considerable part of his fortune in Indiana +farm-mortgages. On these investments the interest was paid with only +the greatest reluctance and in the most fitful fashion. This, I think, +argues for a keen sense of humor in the Hoosier people. Interest is +something that I should never think of paying in any circumstances, as +I have always considered it immoral. My father, keenly enjoying the +playfulness of the Hoosiers in this particular, saved himself from loss +merely by raising the price of baby-cabs throughout the world, and gave +the mortgages as a free gift to the Society for the Amelioration of the +Condition of Good Indians. All the good Indians being dead, the +society had no expenses except officers' salaries, and as the Hoosiers +gave up politics for a season and raised enough corn to pay their +debts, the society became enormously rich." + +As we rose from the table Miss Octavia declared that she must show me +the pie-pantry. I was now so accustomed to her ways that I should not +have been in the least surprised if she had proposed opening a steel +vault filled with a mummified Egyptian dynasty. + +"The gentleman who built this house," she explained, "had already grown +rich in the manufacture of the famous ribless umbrella before he +acquired a second fortune from a nostrum warranted to cure dyspepsia. +He was inordinately fond of pies, and in order that this form of pastry +might never be absent from his home, he had a special pantry built to +which he might adjourn at his pleasure without any fear of finding the +cupboard bare." + +She led the way through the butler's pantry and into a small cupboarded +room adjoining the table-linen closet. At her command the butler threw +open the doors, and disclosed lines of shelves so arranged as to +accommodate, in the most compact and orderly form imaginable, several +dozens of pies. These pastries, in the pans as they had come from the +oven, peeped out invitingly. Miss Octavia explained their presence in +her usual impressive manner. + +"It was one of the conditions of the sale of this house to me by the +original owner's executors that the pie-vault should be kept filled at +all times, whether I am in residence here or not. He felt greatly +indebted to pie for the success of the dyspepsia cure. It had widened +and steadily increased the market for the cure, and pie was to him a +consecrated and sacred food. It was his habit to eat a pie every night +before retiring, and on the nightmares thus inspired he had planned the +strategy of all his campaigns against dyspepsia. The man had elements +of greatness, and these shelves are a monument to his genius. In order +to keep perfect my title to this property it is necessary for me to +maintain a pastry-cook, and as I do not myself care greatly for +pie--though contrary to common experience I have found it a splendid +antephialtic--the total output is distributed among the people of the +neighborhood every second day. The station agent at Bedford is a heavy +consumer, and a retired physician at Mt. Kisco has a standing order for +a dozen a week. My niece Hezekiah, of whom you have heard me speak, is +partial to a particular type of pie and one only. It is the gooseberry +that delights Hezekiah's palate, and under G in File 3, in the corner +behind you, there is even now a gooseberry pie that I shall send to +Hezekiah, who, for reasons I need not explain, does not now visit here." + +"But the dyspepsia man--you speak of him as though he were dead." + +"Your assumption is correct, Mr. Ames. The builder of Hopefield died +only a few weeks after he had established himself in this house. +Having entered upon the enjoyment of his well-earned leisure, and made +it unnecessary that he should ever go pieless to bed, he gave himself +up for a fortnight to a mad indulgence in meringues, and died after +great suffering, steadily refusing his own medicine to the end." + +We still lingered in the pie-crypt after this diverting recital, while +Miss Octavia entertained me with her views on pies. + +"The soul-color of pies varies greatly, Mr. Ames. It has always seemed +to me that apple-pie stands for the homelier virtues of our +civilization; it is substantial, nutritious and filling. The custard +and lemon varieties are feminine, and do not, perhaps for that reason, +appeal to me. Cherry-pie at its best is the last and final expression +of the pie genus, and where cooks have been careful in eliminating the +seeds, and the juice hasn't made sodden dough of the crust, a +cherry-pie meets the soul's highest demands. Grape and raisin-pie are +on my cook's _index expurgatorius_; I consider them neither palatable +nor respectable. But rhubarb is the most odious pie of all, in my +judgment. It suggests the pharmacopoeia--only that and no thing more. +You will pardon me for mentioning the matter, but one of my gardeners, +a Swiss, crawled in here two nights ago and stole a rhubarb-pie, which, +I rejoice to say, made him hideously ill. The R's, you will notice, +are placed near the floor and within easy reach of any larcenous hand. +The ease of his approach was his undoing. The pumpkin variety reaches +almost the same lofty heights as the cherry. When not over-dosed with +spices, a pumpkin-pie conveys a sense of the October landscape that is +the despair of the best painters. In the gooseberry I find a certain +raciness, or if I may use the expression, zip, that is highly +stimulating. Both qualities you will observe in Hezekiah if you come +to know her well. The thought of blackberry or raspberry-pie depresses +me, but huckleberry buoys the spirit again. The huckleberry seems to +me to voice a protest, and unless managed with the greatest neatness +and circumspection it is bound to stimulate the laundry business. As +any one who would eat a cooked strawberry would steal a sick baby's +rattle, I need hardly say that the strawberry-pies, even in their +season, shall have no place on these shelves." + +"So it is the gooseberry that Miss Hezekiah prefers," I remarked with +feigned carelessness, as we walked toward the library. + +"It is, Mr. Ames; and I trust that your inquiry implies no reflection +on Hezekiah's judgment." + +"Quite the reverse, Miss Hollister. It is not going too far to say +that I have formed a high opinion of Miss Hezekiah, and that I should +deal harshly with any one who ventured to criticise her in any +particular." + +"Will you kindly inform me just when you made the acquaintance of my +younger niece? I should greatly dislike to believe you guilty of +dissimulation, but when Hezekiah was mentioned in the gun-room last +night your silence led me to assume that she was wholly unknown to you." + +"She was, I assure you, at the dinner-hour last night; but I met her +quite by chance this afternoon, in an orchard at no great distance from +this house." + +I did not think it necessary to mention the Asolando, as Hezekiah +herself had taken pains to avoid her aunt in the tea room. It was +clear that my words had interested Miss Octavia. She paused in the +hall, and bent her head in thought for a moment. + +"May I inquire whether she referred in any way to Mr. Wiggins in this +interview?" + +"She did, Miss Hollister," I replied; and I could not help smiling as I +remembered Hezekiah's laughter at the mention of my friend. My smile +did not escape Miss Octavia. + +"Just how, may I ask, did she refer to Mr. Wiggins?" + +"As though she thought him the funniest of human beings. She laughed +deliciously at the bare mention of his name." + +"It was not your impression, then, that she was deeply enamored of him; +that she was eating her heart out for him?" + +"Decidedly not, Miss Hollister. She gave me quite a different idea." + +"You relieve me greatly. Mr. Wiggins's sense of humor is the +slightest, and I should not in the least fancy him for Hezekiah. And +besides, I am not yet ready to arrange a marriage for her." + +She laid the slightest stress on the final pronoun. It was a fair +inference, then, that Miss Cecilia's affairs were being "arranged;" +when they had been determined, a husband would be found for Hezekiah. +But had there ever existed before, anywhere in the Copernican system, a +wealthy aunt so delightfully irresponsible, so vertiginous in her +mental processes, so happily combining the maddest quixotism with the +bold spirit of the Elizabethan mariners! My faith in the real +sweetness and kindliness of her nature was unshaken by her +capriciousness. I did not doubt that her intentions toward her nieces +were the friendliest, no matter what strange devices she might employ +to bend those young women to her purposes. + +She disappeared in the hall without excuse, and I entered the library +to find Cecilia sitting alone by the fire. She put aside a book she +had been reading, and seeing that her aunt had not followed me, asked +at once as to my visit to the inn. + +"I conveyed your message," I answered; "but you have seen Mr. Wiggins +since, unless I am greatly mistaken." + +"Yes; he called this afternoon. We had several callers at the +tea-hour. I had rather expected you back." + +"The fact is," I replied, "that after I had taken luncheon at the +Prescott Arms, I got lost among the hills, and while in the act of +robbing an apple-orchard I came most unexpectedly upon your sister." + +"Hezekiah!" + +"The same; and oddly enough, I had met her before, though I did n't +realize it was she until the meeting in the orchard. It was in the +Asolando that I saw her; she was at the cashier's wicket the afternoon +I met your aunt there." + +She seemed puzzled for a moment; then her eyes brightened, and she +laughed; but her laugh was not like Hezekiah's. Cecilia's mirth had +its own expression. It was touched with a sweet gravity, and her +laughter was such as one would expect from the Milo if that divine +marble were to yield to mirth. Cecilia grew upon me: there was magic +in her loveliness; she was a finished product. It seemed inconceivable +that she and the fair-haired girl with whom I had exchanged banter in +the upland orchard were daughters of one mother. + +"You have given me information, Mr. Ames. I did not know that Hezekiah +had ever been connected with the Asolando." + +"Oh, it was only that one historic day. She says the place was +unbearable. She jarred the holiest chords of the divine lyre by harsh +comments on the Pre-Raphaelite profile. One of the devotees was so +shocked that she dropped a plate or something, and, to put it coarsely, +Hezekiah got the bounce." + +My description of Hezekiah's brief tenure of office at the Asolando +seemed to amuse Cecilia greatly. + +"There is no one like my sister," she said; "there never was and there +never will be any one half so charming. Hezekiah is an original, who +breaks all the rules and yet always sends the ball over the net. And +it is because she is so inexpressibly dear and precious that I am +anxious that nothing shall ever hurt her,--nothing mar the sweet, +beautiful child-spirit in her." + +It was my turn to laugh now. Cecilia's manifestation of maternal +solicitude for Hezekiah seemed absurd. For Hezekiah, in her way, was +older; Hezekiah had raced with Diana and plucked arrows from her +girdle; she had heard Homer at the roadside singing of Achilles' shield. + +"Hezekiah is reasonably safe, I should say, because she is so amazingly +swift of foot and eye, and so nimble of speech. She is not to be +caught in a net or tripped with a word." + +"I suppose that is so," remarked Cecilia soberly. "You thought her +happy when you met her to-day? She did not strike you as being a girl +with a wound in her heart? She was n't particularly _triste_?" + +"Not more so than sunlight on rippled water or the song of the lark +ascending." + +"Of course you made no reference to Mr. Wiggins? If I had imagined you +would meet her I should have"-- + +She ended with an embarrassment that I now understood, and I broke in +cheerfully. + +"We did mention him. She asked me if I had seen him, and it was the +thought of him that evoked her merriest laughter." + +She shook her head and sighed; then her manner changed abruptly. + +"You delivered my message to Mr. Wiggins?" + +"I did. He is badly out of sorts and sees nothing clearly. He is very +bitter toward your aunt. He thinks she has treated him outrageously." + +"Aunt Octavia has done nothing of the kind," she replied with spirit. +"Mr. Wiggins has no right to speak of Aunt Octavia save in terms of +kindness. If her wits are sharper than his, it is not her fault, that +I can see! But there are matters here that I do not understand, Mr. +Ames. I trust you, as my aunt evidently does, or I should not be +talking to you as I am; and I am moved to ask a favor of you,--a favor +of considerable weight in view of the fact that you are a professional +man with doubtless many pressing calls upon your time." + +I bowed humbly before this compliment. My time had been lightly +appraised by Miss Octavia and again by Wiggins. A long telegram from +my assistant that reached me while I dressed for dinner had urged my +immediate attendance upon my office. Some of my best clients, now +reopening their houses for the winter, were in desperate straits. From +the number of appeals for help reported by my assistant I judged that +all the chimneys in the republic had grown obstreperous. But Father +Time learned early in his career that to women his scythe's edge has no +terrors. In this instance I must admit that if Cecilia Hollister +wished to cut a few days out of my reasonable expectation of life it +was not for me to plead sick chimneys as an excuse for declining to +serve her. + +In fact, I had never found myself so close upon the heels of the +adventure that we all crave as since making the acquaintance of the +Hollisters. Octavia Hollisters do not occur in the life of every young +man, and both Cecilia and Hezekiah had taken strong hold upon my +imagination. Wiggins's place among the dramatis personæ would in +itself have compelled my sympathetic attention; and the nine silk hats +that I had seen bobbing over the stile still danced before my eyes. + +"Miss Hollister," I said, "my time is yours to command. My office is +well organized, and I am sure that my assistant is equal to any demands +that may be made upon him. Pray state in what manner I may serve you." + +"I am going far, I know, Mr. Ames, but I beg that you will not be in +haste to leave my aunt's house. She must have been strongly prejudiced +in your favor, or she would not have asked you here on so short +acquaintance. I am confident that she has no thought of your leaving. +She expressed her great liking for you at luncheon, and I am sure that +she will see to it that you do not lack for entertainment. I assume +that you must have gathered from what Mr. Wiggins told you of my +acquaintance with him the peculiar plight in which I am placed." + +I bowed. If she groped in the dark and needed my help in finding the +light, I was not the man to desert her. I had dropped my plumb-line +into too many dark chimneys not to feel the fascination of mystery. As +I expressed again my entire willingness to abide at Hopefield Manor as +long as she wished, the footman announced Mr. Hartley Wiggins. + +We had hardly exchanged greetings before another man was announced, and +then another. I should say that it was at intervals of about three +minutes that the sedate servant appeared in the curtained doorway and +announced a caller, until nine had been admitted. My spirits soared +high as the gentlemen from the Prescott Arms appeared one after the +other. The earlier arrivals rose to greet the later ones,--and as they +were all in evening clothes I experienced, as when I had seen the same +gentlemen in their afternoon raiment crossing the stile, a sense of +something fantastic and eerie in them. There was nothing unusual about +them, taken as individuals; collectively they were like life-size +studies in black and white that had stepped from their frames for an +evening's recreation. Cecilia introduced me in the order of their +arrival; and in the interest of brevity, and to avoid confusion, I +tabulate them here, with a notation as to their residence and +occupation, taking such data from the notebook in which, at subsequent +dates, I set down the facts which are the basis of this chronicle. + + +HARTLEY WIGGINS, Lawyer and Farmer; Hare and Tortoise Club, New York. + +LINNÆUS B. HENDERSON, Planter; Roanoke, Virginia. + +CECIL HUGH, LORD ARROWOOD, no occupation; Arrowood, Hants, England. + +DANIEL P. ORMSBY, Manufacturer of Knit Goods; Utica, New York. + +S. FORREST HUME, Lecturer on Scandinavian Literature, Occidental +University; Long Trail, Oklahoma. + +JOHN STEWART DICK, Pragmatist; Omaha, Nebraska. + +PENDENNIS J. ARBUTHNOT, Banker and Horseman; Lexington, Kentucky. + +PERCIVAL B. SHALLENBERGER, Novelist and Small Fruits; Sycamore, Indiana. + +GEORGE W. GORSE, Capitalist; Redlands, California. + + +We rose and stood in our several places when, a moment later, Miss +Octavia entered. She greeted the suitors graciously, and then, in her +most charming manner, called one after the other to sit beside her on a +long davenport, the time apportioned being weighed with nicety, so that +none might feel himself slighted or preferred. These interviews +consumed more than half an hour, and the movement thus occasioned gave +considerable animation to the scene. + +It may seem ridiculous that nine gentlemen thus paying court to a young +woman should call upon her at the same hour, but I must say that the +gravity of the suitors and the entire sobriety of Cecilia did not +affect me humorously. Nor did I feel at all out of place in this +strange company. I found myself agreeably engaged for several minutes +in discussing Ibsen with the Oklahoma professor, who proved to be a +delightful fellow. His experience of life was apparently wide, and he +told me with an engaging frankness of his meeting with the Hollisters +in France and of his pursuit of them over many weary parasangs the +previous summer. As no one had elected his courses in the university +at the beginning of the fall term, he had been granted a leave of +absence, and this accounted for his freedom to press his suit at +Hopefield Manor at this season. He was a big fellow, with clean-cut +features, and bore himself with a manly determination that I found +attractive. + +He alone, I may say, of the nine men who had thus appeared in Miss +Octavia's library, met me in a cordial spirit. Even Wiggins seemed not +wholly pleased to find me there again, though he had asked me to +remain. The manner of the others expressed either disdain, suspicion, +or fierce hostility, and Lord Arrowood, who was older than the others +and a man well advanced toward middle age, glared at me so savagely +with his pale blue eyes, that I should have laughed in his face in any +other circumstances. + +When the last man rose from the davenport, Miss Octavia called me to +her side. She seemed contrite at having neglected me during the day, +but assured me that later she hoped to place an entire day at my +disposal. As we talked, the nine suitors sat in a semicircle about +Cecilia, while the group listened to an anecdotal exchange between +Professor Hume and Henderson, the Virginia planter. My opinion of +Cecilia Hollister as a girl of high spirit, able to carry off any +situation no matter how difficult, rose to new altitudes as I watched +her. If this strange wooing _en bloc_ was not to her liking, she +certainly made the best of it. She capped Henderson's best story with +a better one, in negro dialect, and no professional entertainer could +have improved upon her recital. As she finished we all joined in the +general laugh, Lord Arrowood's guffaw booming out a trifle +boisterously, when Miss Octavia quietly rose and excused herself. +About five minutes later, when the company had plunged into another +series of anecdotes, I suddenly became conscious that the fireplace, +near which I sat, had all at once begun to act strangely. Much in the +manner of its performance the previous night, it abruptly gasped and +choked; the smoke ballooned in a great swirl and then poured out into +the room. + +After my examination of the flues in the morning, I had dismissed them +from my mind, and this extraordinary behavior of the library fireplace +astounded me. It is not in reason that a perfectly normal fireplace, +built in the most approved fashion, and with chimneys that rise into as +clear an ether as October can bestow, could act so monstrously without +the intervention of some malign agency. We had discussed all the +possibilities the previous night, and I was not anxious to hear further +lay opinions. The chimney's conduct was annoying, the more so that to +my professional sense it was inexplicable. + +Lord Arrowood had retreated discreetly toward the door, and the others +had risen and stood close behind Cecilia, whose gaze was bent rather +accusingly upon me. + +A dark thought had crossed my mind. As our eyes met, I felt that she +had read my suspicions and did not wholly reject them. Henderson was +valiantly poking the logs, while one or two of the other men gave him +the benefit of their advice. I crossed the hall to the drawing-room, +but no one was there. I went back to the billiard-room, but saw +nothing of Miss Octavia. Cecilia had rung for the footman, and I +passed him in the hall on his way to answer her summons. I stopped him +with an inquiry on my lips; but I could not ask the question; even in +my perplexity as to the cause of the chimney's remarkable performances +I did not so far forget myself as to communicate my suspicion to a +servant. + +"Nothing, Thomas," I said; and the man passed on. + +It was possible, of course, that Miss Octavia knew more than she cared +to tell about the erratic ways of the library chimney, or she might +indeed be the cause of its vagaries. Sufficient time had elapsed after +her retirement from the library to allow her to gain the roof and clap +a stopper on the chimney-pot. This did not however account for the +fact that on the previous evening she had been present in the library +when the same chimney had manifested a similar sulkiness. I was still +pondering these things when I heard loud laughter from the library, and +on returning found the logs again blazing in the fireplace, from which +the smoke rose demurely in the flue. + +"This fireplace is like a geyser, Mr. Ames," said Cecilia, "and spurts +smoke at regular intervals. As I remember, the clock on the stair was +striking nine last night when the smoke poured out, and there--it is +striking nine now!" + +She tossed her head slightly; and this was, I thought, in disdain of +the suspicion that must still have shown itself a little stubbornly in +my face. + +I withdrew again in a few minutes, and followed the great chimney's +course upward. Miss Octavia's apartments were at the front of the +house, her sitting-room windows looking out upon the Italian garden. +Her doors were closed, but I knew from my examination in the morning +that the flue of her fireplace tapped the chimney that rose from the +drawing-room, and had nothing whatever to do with the library chimney. + +From the fourth floor I gained the roof, by the route followed on my +inspection of the house in the morning. The smoke from the library +chimney was rising in the crisp, still air blithely. I leaned upon the +crenelations and looked off across the hills, enjoying the loveliness +of the sky, in which the planets throbbed superbly. There was nothing +to be learned here, and I crept back to the trap-door through which I +had come, made it fast, and continued on down to the library. + +There, somewhat to my surprise, I found that in my absence all but Hume +had taken their departure. As I paused unseen in the doorway, I caught +words that were clearly not intended for my ear. + +Cecilia sat by the long table near the fireplace; Hume stood before +her, his arms folded. + +"You are kind; you do me great honor, Professor Hume, but under no +circumstances can I become your wife." + +I retreated hastily to the billiard-room, where I took a cue from the +rack and amused myself for perhaps fifteen minutes, when, hearing the +outer door close and knowing that Hume had departed with his congee, I +returned to the library. + +Cecilia sat where I had left her, and at first glance I thought she was +reading; but she turned quickly as I crossed the room. She held in her +hand an oblong silver trinket not larger than a card-case. A short +pencil similar to those affixed to dance-cards was attached to it by a +slight cord, and she had, I inferred, been making a notation of some +kind on a leaf of the silver-bound booklet. Even after she had looked +up and smiled at me, her eyes sought the page before her; then she +closed the covers and clasped the pretty toy in her hand. As though to +divert my attention she recurred at once to the chimney, in a vein of +light irony. + +"You see," she said, "there is ample reason for your remaining here. +You would hardly find anywhere else so interesting a test of your +professional powers as Hopefield Manor offers. The house is haunted +beyond question, and I can see that you are not a man to leave two +defenseless women to the mercy of a ghost who drops down chimneys at +will." + +I suffered her chaff for several minutes, then I asked point-blank:-- + +"Pardon me, but have you the slightest idea that Miss Octavia is behind +this? It is not possible that she was responsible last night; but she +was not on this floor a while ago when the smoke poured in here. I +should be glad to hear your opinion." + +"I saw that you suspected her before you left the room, Mr. Ames, and I +must say that the idea is in no way creditable to you. If you +entertain such a suspicion you must supply a motive, and just what +motive would you attribute to my Aunt Octavia in this instance?" + +Her tone and manner piqued me, or I should not have answered as I did. + +"It is possible," I said, "that some of these gentlemen who came here +to-night were not to her liking, and it may have occurred to her to get +rid of them by the obviously successful method of smoking them out." + +She rose, still clasping the little silver-backed note-book, and looked +me over with amusement in her face and eyes. + +"You are almost too ingenious, Mr. Ames. I hope that by breakfast-time +you will have some more plausible solution of the problem. Good-night." + +And so, tightly clasping the little book, she left the room. I +followed her to the door, and at the turn of the stair she glanced down +and nodded. Her face, as it hung above me for an instant, seemed +transfigured with happiness. + +But, as will appear, my adventures for the day were not concluded. + + + + +IX + +I MEET A PLAYFUL GHOST + +It was not yet ten o'clock, and I was dismayed at the thought of being +left to my own devices in this big country-house, at an hour when the +talk at the Hare and Tortoise usually became worth while. I sat down +and began to turn over the periodicals on the library table, but I was +in no mood for reading. + +The butler appeared and offered me drink, but the thought of drinking +alone did not appeal to me. I repelled the suggestion coldly; but +after I had dropped my eyes to the English review I had taken up, I was +conscious that he stood his ground. + +"Beg pardon, sir." + +"Well?" + +"Hit's a bit hod about the chimney, sir." + +The professional man in me was at once alert. The chimney's conduct +was inexplicable enough, but I was in no humor to brook the theories of +a stupid servant. Still, he might know something, so I nodded for him +to go on. + +He glanced over his shoulder and came a step nearer. + +"They say in the village, sir, that the 'ouse is 'aunted." + +"What?" + +"'Aunted, sir." + +"Who say it, James?" + +"The liveryman told the coachman, and the 'ousemaid got hit from a +seamstress. Hit's werry queer, sir." + +"Rubbish, James. I 'm amazed that a person of your station should +listen to a liveryman's gossip. There 's the chimney, it's working +perfectly. Some shift of air-currents causes it to puff a little smoke +into this room occasionally, but those things are not related to the +supernatural. We 'll find some way of correcting it in a day or two." + +"Werry good, sir. But begging pardon, the chimney hain't hall. Hit +walks, if I may so hexpress hit." + +"Walks?" I exclaimed, sitting up and throwing down my review. "What +walks?" + +"You 'ear hit, sir, hin the walls. Hit goes right through the solid +brick, most hunaccountable." + +"You hear a mouse in the walls and think it's a ghost? But you forget, +James, that this is a new house,--only a year or so old,--and spooks +don't frequent such places. If it were an old place, it might be +possible that the creaking of floors and the settling of walls would +cause uneasiness in nervous people. The ghost tradition usually rests +on some ugly fact. But here nothing of the kind is present." + +"Hit was one of 'is majesty's horfficers, sir," he answered hoarsely. + +[Illustration: "Hit was one of 'is majesty's horfficers, sir," he +answered hoarsely.] + +It flashed over me that this big stolid fellow was out of his head; but +sane or mad he was clearly greatly disturbed. It was best, I thought, +on either hypothesis, to speak to him peremptorily, and I rose, the +better to deal with the situation. + +"What nonsense is this you have in your head? You 're in the United +States, and there are n't any majesty's soldiers to deal with. You +forget that you 're not in England now." + +"But this 'ere country used to be Henglish, you may recall, sir. The +story the coachman got hin the village goes back to the hold times, +sir, when the colonies was hin rebellion, if I may so call hit, sir, +and 'is majesty's troops was puttin' down the rebellion hin these +parts. Some American rebels chased a British soldier from hover near +White Plains to these 'ere woods as they was then, and they 'anged 'im, +sir, right where this 'ere 'ouse stands, if I may make so free." + +"Ah! This is a revolutionary relic, then?" + +"You 'ave got hit, sir," he sputtered eagerly. "They 'anged the man +right 'ere where the 'ouse stands." + +"That's not a bad story, James. And what does your mistress say about +it?" + +"Well, sir; hit's the talk hin the village that that's why she bought +the place, sir. She rather fancies ghosts and the like, as you may +know, sir." + +"Be careful what you say, James. Miss Hollister is a noble and wise +lady, and you do well to give her your best service." + +"We're all fond of 'er, sir, though she's a bit troubled hin the 'ead, +if I may make so bold. She says a good ghost is a hasset." + +I did not at once catch 'asset' with an aspirate, but when he repeated +it, I laughed in spite of myself. + +"You 'd better go to bed, James. And don't encourage talk among the +other servants about this ghost. I know something about the building +of houses, and I 'll give these walls a good looking over. Good-night." + +It was apparent that my interview had not cheered him greatly. He +turned at the door, to ask if I would put out the lights, and fear was +so clearly written upon his big red face that I dismissed him sharply. + +I made myself comfortable for an hour, smoking a cigar over an article +on English politics, and while I read, a big log placidly burned itself +to ashes. I found the switch and snapped out the library lights. When +I had gained the second floor I turned off the lights in the hall +below, and as I looked down the well to make sure I had turned the +right key, the third floor lights suddenly died and I was left in +darkness. This was the least bit disconcerting. I was quite sure that +the upper lights had remained burning brightly after the darkening of +the lower hall, so that it was hardly possible that the one switch had +cut off both lights. + +Standing by the rail that guarded the well, I peered upward, thinking +that some one above me was manipulating another switch; but the silence +was as complete as the blackness. I was about to turn from the rail to +the wall to find the switch, but at this moment, as my face was still +lifted in the intentness with which I was listening, something brushed +my cheek,--something soft of touch and swift of movement. As I gripped +the rail I felt this touch once, twice, thrice. Then my hand sought +the wall madly, and with so bad an aim that it was quite a minute +before I found the switch-plate and snapped all the keys. The stair, +and the halls above and below me sprang into being again, and I stood +blinking stupidly upward. + +Though I was in a modern house thoroughly lighted by electricity, I +cannot deny that this incident, following so quickly upon the butler's +story, occasioned a moment's acute horripilation, accompanied by an +uncomfortable tremor of the legs. As already hinted, I lay no claim to +great valor. As for ghosts, I am half persuaded of their existence, +and after witnessing a presentation of Hamlet, always feel that +Shakespeare is as safe a guide in such matters as the destructive +scientific critics. + +There were various plausible explanations of the failure of the lights. +Some switch that I did not know of, perhaps in the third-floor hall, +might have been turned; or the power house in the village might have +been shifting dynamos. Either solution of the riddle was credible. +But the ghostly touch on my face could not be accounted for so readily. +Leaving the lights on, I continued to the third floor, and examined the +switch, and sought in other ways to explain these phenomena. My +composure returned more slowly than I care to confess, and I think it +was probably in my mind that the ghost of King George's dead soldier +might be lying in wait for me; but I saw and heard nothing. The doors +of the unused chambers on the third floor were closed, and I did not +feel justified in trying them. The servants were housed on this floor, +at the rear of the house, and a door that cut off their quarters proved +on examination to be tightly locked. + +The fourth floor was only a half-story, used for storage purposes. The +roof was gained, I recalled, by an iron ladder and a hatchway in a +trunk-room. I ran down to my room and found a candle, to be armed +against any further fickleness of the lights, and set out for the +fourth floor. I had changed my coat, and with a couple of candles and +a box of matches started for the roof. My courage had risen now, and I +was ready for any further adventure that the night might hold for me. +Miss Hollister and Cecilia were both in their rooms, presumably asleep; +the servants doubtless had their doors barred against ghostly visitors, +and the house was mine to explore as I pleased. + +I think I was humming slightly as I mounted the stair, which, in +keeping with the general luxuriousness that characterized the +furnishing of the house, was thickly carpeted even to the fourth floor. +I was slipping my hand along the rail, and mounting, I dare say, a +little jauntily as I screwed my courage to an unfamiliar notch, when +suddenly, midway of the first half, and just before I reached the turn +where the stair broke, the lights failed again, with startling +abruptness. This was carrying the joke pretty far, and instantly I +clapped my hand to my pocket for the box of safety-matches, dug it out, +and then in my haste dropped the lid essential to ignition, and stooped +to find it. + +The stair had narrowed on this flight, and as I sought with futile +eagerness to regain the box-lid, I could have sworn that some one +passed me. Still half-stooping, I stretched out my arms and clasped +empty air, and so suddenly had I thrown myself forward, that I lost my +balance and rolled downward the space of half a dozen treads before I +recovered myself. I was badly scared and hardly less angry at having +missed through my own clumsiness the joy of grappling with the ghost of +one of King George's soldiers; but the matches having been lost in the +pitch-darkness of the stair, I could get my bearings again only by +clinging to the stair-rail until I found the second-floor switch. I +should say that two full minutes had passed between the loss of the +matches and my flashing on of the lamps. From top to bottom the lights +shone brightly; but no one was visible and I heard no sound in any part +of the house. + +As I began to analyze my sensations during the temporary eclipse of the +lights, I was conscious of two things. The being, human or other, that +had passed me had been light of step and fleet of motion. There had +been something uncanny in the ease and speed of that passing. I was +without conviction as to its direction, whether up or down, though I +inclined to the former notion for the reason that the employment of a +concealed switch above seemed the more reasonable argument. And a +faint, an almost imperceptible scent, as of a flower, had seemed to be +a part of the passing. Mine is a sensitive nostril, and I was +confident that it did not betray me in this. The sensation stirred by +that faintest of odors had been agreeable; there was nothing suggestive +of grave-mold or cerecloth about it. There was in fact something +rather delightfully human and contemporaneous in this fellow that +pleased and reassured me. That scamp of a revolutionary British +soldier, resenting as was his right the application of hemp to his +precious neck, had still a grace in him, and a ghost who prowls +undaunted about an electric-lighted house in this twentieth century, +having his whim with the switches, cannot be an utterly bad fellow. My +respect for all who are doomed to walk the night rose as, leaving the +lights on clear to the lower hall, I gathered up my matches and started +again for the roof. The trunk-room door opened readily, as on my +morning inspection of the chimney-pots, but as I glanced up, I saw that +the hatch was open. Through the aperture shone the heavens, a square +of stars, and bright with the moon's radiance. Pocketing my matches, I +ran nimbly up the ladder. + + + + +X + +MY BEFUDDLEMENT INCREASES + +I had been surprised to find the hatch open, but it is not too much to +say that I was greatly astonished by what I saw on the moon-flooded +roof. There, midway of a flat area that lay between the two larger +chimney-pots, two persons were intently engaged, not in ghostly +promenading or posturing, or even in audible conversation, but in a +spirited bout with foils! The clicking and scraping of the steel +testified unmistakably to the reality of their presence. And I was +grateful for those sounds! It needed only silence to tumble me back +down the trap with chattering teeth, but these were beyond question +corporeal beings, albeit rendered weird and fantastical by the oddity +of their playground and the soft effulgence of the moon. The vigor of +the onset and the skill of the antagonists held me spellbound. I stood +with head and shoulders thrust through the opening, staring at this +unusual spectacle, and not sure but that after all my eyes were +tricking me. + +"_Touché!_" + +It was a woman's voice, faint from breathlessness. She threw off her +mask and dropped her foil, and with a most human and feminine gesture +put up her hands to adjust her hair. It was Cecilia Hollister, in a +short skirt and fencing coat! + +Her opponent was a man, and as he too flung off his mask I saw that he +was a gentleman of years. If Miss Cecilia Hollister chose to meet +strange men on the roof of her aunt's house and practice the fencer's +art with them, it was no affair of mine, and I was about to withdraw +when the stranger swung round and saw me. His sudden exclamation +caused the girl to turn, and as a reasonable frankness has always +seemed to me essential to a nice discretion, I crawled out on the roof. + +"I beg your pardon, Miss Hollister, but if I had known you were here I +should not have intruded. The vagaries of the library chimney have +been on my mind, and I was about to have another peep into yonder pot." + +She stood at her ease, with one hand resting lightly against the +inexplicable chimney in question, and still somewhat spent from her +exercise. + +[Illustration: She stood at her ease, with one hand resting lightly +against the inexplicable chimney.] + +"Father," she said, turning to the stranger who stood near, "this is +Mr. Ames, who is Aunt Octavia's guest." + +The light of the gibbous moon enabled me to discern pretty clearly the +form and features of Mr. Bassford Hollister. And I find, in looking +over my notes, that I accepted as a matter of course the singular +meeting with my hostess's brother. I had grown so used to the ways of +the Hollisters I already knew, that the meeting with another member of +the family at eleven o'clock at night on the roof of this remarkable +house gave me no great shock of surprise. He was tall, slender and +dark, with fine eyes that suggested Cecilia's. His close-trimmed beard +was slightly gray: but he bore himself erect, and I had already seen +that he was alert of arm and eye and nimble of foot. + +He put on his coat, which had been lying across one of the +crenelations, and covered his head with a small soft hat. + +"This will do for to-night, Cecilia. You had the best of me. We 'll +try again another time. I 'm glad you stopped us, Mr. Ames. We 'd had +enough." + +He seemed in no wise disturbed by my appearance, nor in any haste to +leave. This meeting between the father and daughter, I reasoned, could +hardly have been a matter of chance, and it must have been in Cecilia's +mind that some sort of explanation would not be amiss. + +"Father and I have fenced together for years," she said. "My sister +Hezekiah does not care for the sport. As you have already seen that my +aunt Octavia is an unusual woman, given to many whims, I will not deny +to you that at present my father is _persona non grata_ in this house. +I beg to assure you that nothing to his discredit or mine has +contributed to that situation, nor can our meeting here to-night be +construed as detrimental to him or to me. In meeting my father in this +way I have in a sense broken faith with my aunt Octavia, but I assure +you, Mr. Ames, that it is only the natural affection for a daughter +that led my father to seek me here in this clandestine fashion." + +Cecilia had spoken steadily, but her voice broke as she concluded, and +she walked quickly toward the hatchway. Her father stepped before me +to give her his hand through the opening. + +I withdrew to the edge of the roof while a few words passed between +them that seemed to be on his part an expostulation and on hers an +earnest denial and plea. He passed her the foils and masks and she +vanished; whereupon he addressed himself to me. + +"I had learned from both my daughters of your presence in my sister's +house, and I had expected to meet you, sooner or later. This is a +strange business, a strange business." + +He had drawn out a pipe, which he filled and lighted dexterously. The +flame of his match gave me better acquaintance with his face. He +leaned against the serrated roof-guard with the greatest composure, his +hat tilted to one side, and drew his pipe to a glow. I had not +forgotten my encounter with the ghost on the stair, and as I waited for +him to speak, I was trying to identify him with the mysterious agency +that had tampered with the lights, and passed so ghostly a hand across +my face in the stair-well. I could hardly say that there had not been +time for either Bassford Hollister or his daughter to have reached the +roof after my experiences on the stair; and yet they had been engaged +so earnestly at the moment of my appearance at the hatchway that it was +improbable that either could have played ghost and flown to the roof +before I reached it. And eliminating the ghost altogether, I had yet +to learn how Bassford Hollister had gained entrance to the house. It +seemed best to drop speculations and wait for him to declare himself. + +"You must understand, Mr. Ames, that my daughters, both of them, are +very dear to me. It is the great grief of my life that owing to +matters beyond my control I have been unable to care for them as I +should like to do. This being the case, I have been obliged to allow +them to accept many favors from my only sister Octavia. This in +ordinary circumstances would not be repugnant to my pride; but my +sister is a very unusual person. She must do for my children in her +own way, and while I was prepared, in agreeing that they should accept +her bounty, for some whimsical manifestation of her eccentric +character, I did not imagine that she would go so far as to shut me out +from all knowledge of her plans for them. That, Mr. Ames, is what has +happened." + +His voice rose and fell mournfully. He puffed his pipe for a moment +and continued:-- + +"Cecilia, being the older, was to be launched first. Hezekiah was to +be cared for in due season. Last summer Octavia took them both abroad. +As you are aware, they are young women of unusual distinction of +appearance and manner, and they attracted a great deal of attention. +From what I hear, a troop of suitors followed them about. That sort of +thing would appeal to Octavia; to me it is most repellent, but I had +already committed myself, agreeing that Octavia should manage in her +own fashion. There is now something forward here which I do not +understand. I have an idea that Octavia has contrived some +preposterous scheme for choosing a husband for Cecilia that is in +keeping with her odd fashion of transacting all her business. I do not +know its nature, and by the terms of her agreement Cecilia is not to +disclose the method to be employed to me,--not even to me, her own +father. You must agree, Ames, that that is rather rubbing it in." + +"But you don't assume that your daughter is not to be a free agent in +the matter? You don't believe that some unworthy and improper man is +to be forced upon her?" + +"That, sir, is exactly what I fear!" + +"You will pardon me, but I cannot for a moment believe that Miss +Hollister would risk her niece's happiness even to satisfy her own +peculiar humor. Your sister is a shrewd woman, and her heart, I am +convinced, is the kindest. Among the suitors now camped at the +Prescott Arms there must be some one whom your daughter approves, and I +see no reason why he should not ultimately be her choice. Now that you +have broached the matter, I make free to say that one of these suitors +is an old friend of mine. Hartley Wiggins by name, and that he is a +man of the highest character and a gentleman in the strictest sense." + +He had been listening to me with the greatest composure, but at the +mention of Wiggins's name he started and nervously clutched my arm. + +"That man may be all that you say," he cried chokingly, "but he has +acted infamously toward both my daughters. He is a rogue, and a most +despicable fellow. He has flirted outrageously with Hezekiah while at +the same time pretending to be deeply interested in Cecilia. I say to +you in all candor that a man who will trifle with the affections of a +child like Hezekiah is a villain, nothing less." + +"But, my dear sir, is it not possible that you do him a great wrong? +May it not be the other way round, that Hezekiah is trifling with +Wiggins's affections? He 's a splendid fellow, Hartley Wiggins, but he +'s a little slow, that's all. And between two superb young women like +your daughters a man may be pardoned for doubts and hesitations; a case +of being happy with either if t'other dear charmer were only away. To +put it quite concretely, I will say that in my own very slight +acquaintance with these young women I feel the spell of both. Your +sister, I take it, is anxious not to show partiality for any of these +men, and yet I dare say she probably feels kindly disposed toward +Wiggins. His worst crime seems to be that he chose Tory ancestors! +The thing is bound to straighten itself out." + +He tossed his head impatiently. + +"Has it occurred to you that Octavia's interest in this Hartley Wiggins +may be due to a trifling and immaterial fact?" + +"Nothing beyond his indubitable eligibility." + +"Then let me tell you what I suspect. Both his names contain seven +letters. My sister is slightly cracked as to the number seven. I +swear to you my belief that the fact that his names contain seven +letters each is at the bottom of all this. Incredible, my dear sir, +but wholly possible!" + +"Then, such being the case, why does n't she show her hand openly? If +she believes that Wiggins with his septenary names is ordained by the +seven original pleiades to marry your daughter Cecilia, I should think +that by the same token she would have sought a man rejoicing in the +noble name of Septimus. You send conjecture far when once you +entertain so absurd an idea." + +"You think my assumption unlikely?" he asked eagerly. + +"I certainly do, Mr. Hollister. But I confess that I had never counted +the letters in Wiggins's name before, and your suggestion is +interesting. And this whole idea of the potential seven in our affairs +has possibilities. If seven at all, why is n't it possible that your +sister has Jacob in mind and the seven years he served for Rachel? You +may as well assume that, as Wiggins is specially favored in the number +of letters in his singularly prosaic and unromantic name, it is Miss +Hollister's plan to keep him dallying seven years." + +He seized me by the arm and forced me back against the battlements, +then stood off and eyed me fiercely. + +"You speak of serving and of service! Will you tell me just why you +are here and what brings you into this affair! My daughter Hezekiah is +the frankest person alive, and she told me of her meetings with you and +that you had been to the Asolando,--where she spent a day in the +sheerest spirit of mischief. That was the beginning of all our +troubles, that damned hole with its insane confectionery and poetry. +If Cecilia, in a misguided notion of earning her own living, had not +gone there and worn an apron for a week before I dragged her out, she +would never have met Wiggins. And now will you kindly tell me just +what you are doing in my sister's house, where I have to come like a +thief in the night to see one of my own children?" + +This fierce deliverance touched me nearly: I doubted my ability to +explain to one of these amazing Hollisters just how I came to be +sojourning in the house of another of the family without any business +that would bear scrutiny. I hastened to declare my profession, and +that I had been summoned by Miss Hollister to examine her chimneys. I +could not, however, tell him that until my arrival the chimneys had +behaved themselves admirably! + +"You've admitted your friendship for this Wiggins person; that's +enough," he said when I had concluded. "I advise you to leave the +house at once. I tell you he 's got to be eliminated from the +situation. Understand, that I do not threaten you with violence, but I +will not promise to abstain from visiting heavy punishment upon that +fellow. And you? A chimney-doctor? I am a man of considerable +knowledge of the world, and I say to you very candidly that I don't +believe there is any such profession." + +"Then let me tell you," I replied, not without heat, "that I am a +graduate in architecture, and that if you will do me the honor to +consult a list of the alumni of the Institute of Technology, you will +find that I was graduated there not without credit. And as for +remaining in this house, I beg to inform you, Mr. Hollister, that as I +am your sister's guest and as she is perfectly competent to manage her +own affairs, I shall stay here as long as it pleases her to ask me to +remain. And now, one other matter. How did you gain this roof +to-night, when by your own admission you are not on such terms with +your sister as would justify you in entering it openly?" + +The moonlight did not fail to convey the contempt in his face, but I +thought he grinned as he answered quietly:-- + +"You don't seem to understand, young man, that you are entitled to no +explanations from me. If my sister has her sense of a joke, I assure +you that I have mine. I came here to see my daughter. As I taught her +to fence when she was ten years old and as she is particularly expert, +and moreover, as in my present condition of poverty I have been obliged +to forego the pleasure of metropolitan life and to give up my +membership in the Fencers' Club, you can hardly deny my right to meet +my own daughter for a brief bout anywhere I please. You strike me as a +singularly fresh young person. It would be a positive grief to me to +feel that my conduct had displeased you. And now, as the night grows +chill, I shall beg you to precede me into the house by the way you +came." + +"But first," I persisted, "let me ask a question. It is possible that +you yourself have some preference among your daughter's several +suitors, Mr. Hollister. Would you object to telling me which one you +would choose for Miss Cecilia?" + +"Beyond question, the man for Cecilia, if I have any voice in the +matter, is Lord Arrowood." + +"Arrowood!" I exclaimed. "You surprise me greatly. I saw him at the +inn, and he seemed to me the most insignificant and uninteresting one +of the lot." + +"That proves you a person of poor gifts of discernment, Mr. Ames;" and +his tone and manner were quite reminiscent of his sister's ways; and +his further explanation proved him even more worthily the brother of +his sister. + +"As I was obliged," he began, "owing to an unfortunate physical +handicap, to abandon my art, that of a marine painter, I have given my +attention for a number of years to the study of the Irish situation. +Between the various political parties of Great Britain, poor Ireland +can never regain her ancient power. But I see no reason why she should +not become once more a free and independent nation. I have gone deeply +into Irish history, and I may modestly say that I probably know that +history from the time of the Anglo-Norman invasion to the death of +Gladstone better than any other living man. I met Arrowood by chance +in the highway yesterday, and I found that he holds exactly my ideas." + +"But Arrowood isn't an Irishman," I interjected; "neither, I should +say, are you!" + +"That's not to the point. Neither was Napoleon a Frenchman strictly +speaking; nor was Lafayette an American. A friend of mine in Wall +Street is ready, when the time is ripe, to finance the scheme by +selling bonds to the multitudes of Irish office-holders throughout the +United States,--most of whom are not unknown to the banks." + +"And I suppose you and Arrowood would sit jointly in the seat of the +ancient kings in Dublin after you had effected your _coup_." + +"You lose your bet, Mr. Ames. We have agreed that, as the mayors of +Boston for many years have been Irishmen, and as they have, by their +prowess in holding the natives in subordination, demonstrated the +highest political sagacity, we could not do better than take one of +these rulers of the old Puritan capital and place him on the Irish +throne. The keen humor of that move would so tickle all interested +powers, that the investiture and coronation of the new ruler would be +accomplished without firing a shot." + +This certainly had the true Hollister touch! Miss Octavia herself +could not have devised a more delightful scheme. + +"And so," Mr. Bassford Hollister concluded, "I naturally incline toward +Arrowood, though he is so poor that he was obliged to come over in the +steerage to continue his wooing of my daughter." + +He let himself down into the dark trunk-room, waited for me +courteously, and walked by my side to the stairway, both of us +maintaining silence. I was deeply curious to know how he had entered +and whether he expected to go down the front way and out the main door. +We kept together to the third-floor hall,--I could have sworn to that; +then suddenly, just as we reached the stairway, out went the lights, +and we were in utter darkness. I smothered an exclamation, clutched my +matches and struck a light, and as the stick flamed slowly, I looked +about for Bassford Hollister; but he had vanished as suddenly and +completely as though a trap had yawned beneath us and swallowed him. I +found the third-floor switch and it responded immediately, flooding the +stair-well to the lower hall, but I neither saw nor heard anything more +of Hollister. + +Astounded by this performance, I continued on to the lower floor to +have a look around, and there, calmly reading by the library table, sat +Miss Octavia! + +"Late hours, Mr. Ames!" she cried. "I supposed you had retired long +ago." + +I was still the least bit ruffled by that last transaction on the +stair, and I demanded a little curtly:-- + +"Pardon my troubling you; but may I inquire, Miss Hollister, how long +you have been sitting here?" + +The clock on the stair began to strike twelve, and she listened +composedly to a few of the deep-toned strokes before replying. + +"Just half an hour. I thought some one knocked at my door about an +hour ago. The lights were on and I came down, saw a magazine that had +escaped my eye before, and here you find me." + +"Some one knocked at your door?" + +"I thought so. You know, the servants have an idea that the place is +haunted, and I thought that if I sat here the ghost might take it upon +himself to walk. I confess to a slight disappointment that it is only +you who have appeared. I suppose it was n't you who knocked at my +door?" + +"No," I replied, laughing a little at her manner, "not unless it was +you who switched off the lights as I was coming down from the fourth +floor. I have been studying this chimney from the roof. I know +something of the ways of electric switches, and they don't usually move +of their own accord." + +"Your coming to this house has been the greatest joy to me, Mr. Ames. +I should not have imagined, in a chance look at you, that you were +psychical, and yet such is clearly the fact. I assure you that I have +not touched any switch since I left my room. It was unnecessary, as I +found the lights on. And I acquit you of rapping, rapping at my +chamber-door. It gives me the greatest satisfaction to assume that the +house is haunted, and at any time you find the ghost, I beg that you +will lose no time in presenting me. If the prowler is indeed one of +King George's soldiers, hanged during the Revolution on the site of +this house, I should like to have words with him. I have just been +reading an article on the political corruption in Philadelphia in this +magazine. It bears every evidence of truth, but if half of it is +fiction I still feel that, as an American citizen, though denied the +inalienable right of representation assured me in the Constitution, we +owe that ghost an apology; for certainly nothing was gained by throwing +off the British yoke, and that poor soldier died in a worthy cause." + +She wore a remarkable lavender dressing-gown, and a night-cap such as I +had never seen outside a museum. As she concluded her speech, spoken +in that curious lilting tone which, from the beginning, had left me in +doubt as to the seriousness of all her statements, she rose and, still +clasping her magazine, made me a courtesy and was soon mounting the +stair. + +I heard her door close a minute later, and then, feeling that I had +earned the right to repose, I went to my room and to bed. + + + + +XI + +I PLAY TRUANT + +I slept late, and on going down found the table set in the +breakfast-room. A pleasant inadvertence marked the choice of +eating-places at Hopefield Manor; I was never quite sure where I should +find a table spread. No one was about, and I was seized with that mild +form of panic familiar to the guest who finds himself late to a meal. +As I paused uncertainly in the door, viewing the table, set, I noticed, +for only one person, Miss Octavia entered briskly, her slight figure +concealed by a prodigious gingham apron. + +"Good-morrow, merry gentleman," she began blithely. "The most +delightful thing has happened. Without the slightest warning, without +the faintest intimation of their dissatisfaction, the house-servants +have departed, with the single exception of my personal maid, who, +being a Swede and therefore singularly devoid of emotion, was unshaken +by the ghost-rumors that have sent the rest of my staff scampering over +the hills." + +She lighted the coffee-machine lamp in her most tranquil fashion, and +begged me to be seated. + +"I have already breakfasted," she continued, "and Cecilia is even now +preparing you an omelet with her own hand. I beg to reassure you, as +my guest, that the _émeute_ of the servants causes me not the slightest +annoyance. From reading the comic papers you may have gained an +impression that the loss of servants is a tragic business in any +household, but nothing so petty can disturb me. Cecilia is an +excellent cook; and I myself shall not starve so long as I have +strength to crack an egg or lift a stove-lid. And besides, I still +retain my early trust in Providence. I do not doubt that before +nightfall a corps of excellent servants will again be on duty here. +Very likely they are even now bound for this place, coming from the wet +coasts of Ireland, from Liverpool, from lonely villages in Scandinavia. +The average woman would merely fret herself into a sanatorium if +confronted with the problem I face this morning, but I hope you will +testify in future to the fact that I faced this day in the cheeriest +and most hopeful spirit." + +"Not only shall I do so, Miss Hollister," I replied, trying to catch +her own note, "but it will, throughout my life, give me the greatest +satisfaction to set your cause aright. To that extent let me be +Horatio to your Hamlet." + +"Thank you, milord," she returned, with the utmost gravity. "And may I +say further that the incident gives the stamp of authenticity to my +ghost? I was obliged to pay those people double wages to lure them +from the felicities of the city, and they must have been a good deal +alarmed to have left so precipitately. You must excuse me now, as it +is necessary for me to do the pastry-cook's work this morning, that +individual having fled with the rest, and it being incumbent on me, to +maintain my fee-simple in this property, to make a dozen pies before +high noon. But first I must visit the stables, where I believe the +coachman still lingers, having been prevented from joining the stampede +of the house-servants by the painful twinges of gout." + +With this she left me, and I began pecking at a grape-fruit. It had +been in my mind as I dressed that morning to play truant and visit the +city. It was almost imperative that I take a look at my office, and I +had resolved upon a plan which would, I believed, give me the key to +the ghost mystery. If Pepperton had built that house he must know +whether he had contrived any secret passages that would afford exits +and entrances not apparent to the eye. It would be an easy matter to +run into the city, explain myself to my assistant, and get hold of +Pepperton. My mind was made up, and I had even consulted a time-table +and chosen one of the express trains. As I sat at the table absorbed +in my plans for the day, my nerves received a sudden shock. I had +heard no one enter, yet a voice at my shoulder murmured casually: + + "Hast thou seen ghosts? Hast thou at midnight heard"-- + + +It was the voice of Hezekiah, I knew, before I faced her. She wore a +blue sailor-waist with a broad red ribbon tied under the collar, and a +blue tam o' shanter capped her head. She bore a tray that contained my +omelet, a plate of toast, and other sundries incidental to a +substantial breakfast, which she distributed deftly upon the table. + +"How did you get here?" I blurted, my nerves still out of control. + +"The kitchen door, sir. I had ridden into the garden, and seeing Aunt +Octavia heading for the stables and Cecilia at the kitchen window, I +pedaled boldly in. Cecilia wanted to borrow my bicycle, and being a +good little sister, I gave it to her. She also said that you required +food, so I told her to go and I would carry you your breakfast. I +shall skip myself in a minute. You may draw your own coffee. Mind the +machine; it tips if you are n't careful." + +She went to the window and peered out toward the stables. + +"May I ask, Daughter of Kings, where your sister has gone so suddenly?" + +"Certainly. She 's off for town to chase a cook and a few other people +to run this hotel. I heard at the post-office that the whole camp had +deserted, so I ran over to see what was doing; and just for that I 've +got to walk home." + +"But your aunt said that Providence would take care of the servant +question; she expected a whole corps of ideal servants to come straying +in during the day." + +Hezekiah laughed. (It is not right for any girl to be as pretty as +Hezekiah, or to laugh as musically.) She told me to sit down, and as I +did so she passed the toast and helped herself to a slice into which +she set her fine white teeth neatly, watching me with the merriest of +twinkles in her brown eyes. + +"Cecilia has n't Aunt Octavia's confidence in Providence, so she 's +taking a shot at the employment agencies. She has left a note on the +kitchen table to inform Aunt Octavia that she had forgotten an +engagement with the dentist and has gone to catch the ten-eighteen." + +"That, Hezekiah, is a lie. It isn't quite square to deceive your aunt +that way," I remarked soberly. + +Hezekiah laughed again. + +"You absurdity! Don't you know Aunt Octavia yet! She will be +perfectly overjoyed when she comes back and finds that note from +Cecilia. She likes disappearances, mysteries, and all that kind of +thing. But it is barely possible that you will have to wash the +dishes. I can't, you see, for I 'm not supposed to come on the +reservation at all--not until Cecilia has found a husband. Is n't it +perfectly delicious?" + +"All of that, Daughter of Kings! I think that as soon as I can regain +confidence in my own sanity I shall like it myself. But,"--and I +watched her narrowly,--"you see, Hezekiah, there is really a ghost, you +know." + +Once more that divine mirth in her bubbled mellowly. She had walked +guardedly to the window and turned swiftly with a mockery of fear in +her face. + +"Aunt Octavia approaches, and I must be off. But that ghost, Mr. +Chimney-Man,--when you find him, please let me know. There are a lot +of things I want to ask some reliable ghost about the hereafter." + +With this she fled, and I heard the front door close smartly after her. +An instant later Miss Octavia appeared and asked solicitously how I +liked my omelette. + +"The coachman has been telling me a capital ghost-story. He believes +them to be beneficent and declares that he will under no circumstances +leave my employment." + +She sat down and folded her arms upon the table. For the first time I +believed that she was serious. There was, in fact, a troubled look on +her sweet, whimsical face. It occurred to me that the loss of her +servants was not really the slight matter she had previously made of it. + +"Mr. Ames, will you pardon me for asking you a question of the most +intimate character? It is only after much hesitation that I do so." + +I bowed encouragingly, my curiosity fully aroused. + +"You may ask me anything in the world, Miss Hollister." + +"Then I wish you would tell me whether,--I can't express the dislike I +feel in doing this,--but can you tell me whether you have seen in the +hands of my niece Cecilia a small--a very small, silver-backed +note-book." + +"Yes, I have," I answered, greatly surprised. + +"And may I ask whether,--and again I must plead my deep concern as an +excuse for making such an inquiry,--whether you by any chance saw her +making any notation in that book?" + +I recalled the silver-bound book perfectly, but had attached no +importance to it; but if Cecilia's fortunes were so intimately related +to it as Miss Hollister's manner implied, I felt that I must be careful +of my answer. I was trying to recall the precise moment at which I had +entered the library the preceding evening after Hume's departure, and +while I was intent upon this my silence must have been prolonged. I +felt obliged to make an answer of some sort, and yet I did not relish +the thought of conveying information that might distress and embarrass +a noble girl like Cecilia Hollister. Something in my face must have +conveyed a hint of this inner conflict to Miss Hollister, for she rose +suddenly, holding up her hand as though to silence me. She seemed +deeply moved, and cried in agitation:-- + +"Do not answer me! The question was quite unfair,--quite unfair,--and +yet I assure you that at the moment I made the inquiry, I felt +justified." + +She retreated toward the door as I rose; and then with her composure +fully restored she courtesied gracefully. + +"Luncheon here will be a buffet affair to-day, as I shall be engaged +with matters of pastry. I'm sure, however, that you will find +employment until dinner-time, when my house will be fully in order +again." + +I intended that this should be a busy day, so without making +explanations I went to the stable, told the coachman I wished to be +driven to the station, and was soon whizzing over the hills toward +Katonah. The coachman, an Irishman, introduced the subject of the +ghost as soon as we were out of sight of the house. + +"The ole lady's dipped; she's dipped, sir," he remarked leadingly. + +"It's catching," I answered; "so you'd better forget it." + +He thereupon settled glumly to his driving. As we crossed the bridge +near where I had first encountered Hezekiah in the apple-orchard, I +spied her trudging across a meadow, and she waved her hand gaily. +Meadows and streams and stars! Of such were Hezekiah's kingdom. + +I wondered how Wiggins and the other gentlemen at the Prescott Arms +were faring. My question was partially answered a second later, as we +passed the road that forked off to the inn. On a stone by the roadside +sat Lord Arrowood, desolately guarding a kit-bag and a suit-case. He +was dressed in a shabby Norfolk jacket and knickerbockers, and sucked a +pipe. + +[Illustration: On a stone by the roadside sat Lord Arrowood.] + +I bade the driver pause, and greeted the nobleman affably. + +"Can I give you a lift? You seem to be bound for the station, and I'm +taking a train myself." + +"No, thanks," he replied sharply. "They're a lot of +bounders,--bounders, I say!" + + + + +"Ah! Of whom do you speak, Lord Arrowood?" I asked glancing at my +watch. + +"Those scoundrels at the inn. They have thrown me out. Thrown me +out--me!" + +"Hard lines, for a fact; but if you are interested in trains"-- + +"I refuse to leave the county!" he shouted. "If they think they're +going to get rid of me they're mistaken. Bounders, I say, bounders!" + +He uttered this opprobrious term with great bitterness, and crossed his +legs, as though to emphasize his permanence upon the boulder. Patience +on a monument is not more eternally planted. He seemed in no mood for +conversation, so I sped on, with no time to lose. + +I gained the step of the chair-car attached to the ten-eighteen with +some loss of dignity, the porter yanking me aboard under the +conductor's scornful eye. The Katonah passengers were still in the +aisle, and as I surveyed them I saw Cecilia take a seat in the middle +of the car. She was just unfolding a newspaper when I moved to a seat +behind her and bade her good-morning. + +The look she gave me in turning round had in it something of Hezekiah's +quizzical humor. This interested me, because I had not previously seen +any but the most superficial resemblance between the sisters. Her +cheeks were aglow from her sprint on the wheel. The short skirt and +the shirt waist are the true vesture of emancipated woman. Cecilia +Hollister, whose apparel at home had struck me as rather formal, seemed +this morning quite a new being. She drew a folded veil from the pocket +of her jacket, removed her hat, and pinned the veil to it. She kept +the hat in her lap, however, and went on talking. + +"We are both truants. You must have breakfasted in a hurry to have +caught this train." + +"Not at all. I enjoyed a brief conversation with your sister, and +after she had gone, your aunt came back and lingered for a moment." + +"She told you, I suppose, that Providence would look after the servant +question." + +"She did, just that." + +"Well, Providence is hardly equal to getting enough servants to run +that place, so I'm going to assist Providence a little." + +"You become the vicaress of Providence? I admire your spirit." + +"It's mere self-preservation. Aunt Octavia would have me chained to +the kitchen if I did n't do something about it." + +She had permitted me to settle with the conductor, and when I had +completed this transaction I found that she had drawn from her purse +the little silver booklet about which Miss Octavia had inquired so +anxiously. She held this close to her eyes, so that I had a clear view +of the silver backs, on one of which "C.H." was engraved in neat +script. The subjoined pencil she held poised ready for use, touching +the tip of it absent-mindedly to her tongue. She raised her eyes with +the far-away look still in them. + +"Can you tell me how to spell Arrowood,--is it one or two w's?" + +"One, I think the noble lord uses." + +She seemed to write the name, and I saw her counting on her fingers, +touching them lightly on the open page of the book. + +Then she dropped it into her purse, which she thrust back carefully +into her pocket. She sighed, and was silent for a moment. We were +passing a series of huge signs built like a barricade along the right +of way, and on one of these I observed with fresh interest an +advertisement whose counterpart I had seen often about New York, but +without ever observing it attentively. It drew a laugh from me now. +It represented an infant in a perambulator, behind which stood the +effigy of a capped and aproned nurse. A legend was inscribed on the +board to this effect:-- + + HUSH! Baby's asleep. + It's a HOLLISTER PERAMBULATOR! + + +"If it's a Hollister," I remarked as a second of these flew by the +window, "it's perfect." + +"Oh, those things!" she exclaimed. + +"I was n't referring to the perambulator necessarily. Anything that's +Hollister must be good." + +"We're out of the business, except that Aunt Octavia gets a dollar for +every one that's made; but the trust keeps the name." + +"The trust could hardly change your name. You will have to do that +yourself." + +"You've been talking to Hezekiah. That's the way people always talk to +her." + +"It's certainly not the way I've been talking to you; but we've run +away from school, and I'm disposed to make the most of it. Our +conversation at your aunt's has been so high up in the air, that it's +pleasant to come down to earth and tune it to the less strenuous note +of a twentieth-century railway journey." + +"That, Mr. Ames, may depend upon the point of view." + +"But you will make it yours, won't you? You see, I've always dreamed +of adventures, but since I met your aunt in the Asolando they've been +coming a little too fast. There's that ghost business. Now I 'm going +to catch that ghost to-night, if it's the last thing I do!" + +"Well, I'm not the ghost, and neither is my father, if that's what's in +your mind. Tell me just what you have seen and heard." + +I gave her the story in detail, and my recital seemed to amuse her +greatly. + +"You thought it was Aunt Octavia herself at first, then you thought I +was the spook, and now you are not fully persuaded that it is not my +father. I will take you into my confidence this far--that I don't know +how father got into the house last night. He wrote a note asking me to +meet him on the roof and bring the foils. That was not unlike him, as +he is the dearest father in the world, and his whims are just as jolly +in their way as Aunt Octavia's. I was sure that Aunt Octavia had +retired for the night, so I changed my dress and carried the foils up +through the trunk-room. I had hardly reached there before my father +appeared. The whole situation--my being there and all that--has +distressed father a great deal; so I let you see me cry a little. I +promise never to do it again." + +Mirth brightened the eyes she turned upon me now. + +"You think," she asked, "that those lights could n't have winked out +twice by themselves while you were on the stairway." + +"I am positive of it. And somebody--a being of some sort--passed me on +the stairway. It might imaginably have been you!" + +"But I tell you positively it was not." + +"Then it might have been your father. A man who can enter a house at +will might easily play any manner of other tricks. His disappearance +after I had gone down into the house with him was just as mysterious as +the ghost." + +"It was natural for father not to want you to know how he got in; the +motive for that would be the fact that he is not supposed to see me or +communicate with me in any way. But you 've got to get a +ghost-_motif_." + +"I think I have one," I said. + +"Then all the rest is easy. To whom does this ghost-_motif_ lead you?" + +"I need hardly say; for it must have occurred to you that there is one +member of the Hollister family we have n't mentioned in this +connection." + +"If you mean Hezekiah"-- + +"None other!" + +The surprise in her face was not feigned,--I was confident of +this,--and the questions evoked by my answer at once danced in her eyes. + +"If Hezekiah should be caught in the house just now we should all pay +dearly for her rashness. Believe me, this is true. Some day you may +know the whys and wherefores; at present no one may know. There is +this, however,--if Hezekiah or my father should be found at Hopefield +Manor, anywhere on the premises, while I am there, the consequences +would be disastrous,--more so than I dare tell you. But why should +Hezekiah wish to prowl about there at night,--to assume for a moment +that she is doing it?" + +Her manner was wholly earnest. It was plain that she had entered into +some sort of a compact with her aunt, and no doubt the arrangement was +in the characteristic whimsical vein of which I had enjoyed personal +experience. I did not wish to press Cecilia for explanations she might +not be free to make, but I ventured a suggestion or two. + +"Hezekiah may be entering the house and playing ghost for amusement, +merely in a spirit of childish rebellion against the interdiction that +forbids her the house. That is quite plausible, Hezekiah being the +spirited young person we know her to be. And it may amuse her, too, to +plug the chimneys at a time when her sister is enjoying the visits of +suitors. Without quite realizing that such was her animus, she may be +the least,--the very least bit jealous!" + +Cecilia flushed and her eyes flashed indignantly. She bent toward me +eagerly. + +"Please do not say such a thing! You must not even think it!" + +"She may be a little forlorn, alone in your father's house over the +hills at times when you are surrounded by admirers, and it is my +assumption from what I have learned in one way and another of your +flight abroad last summer, that some of these gentlemen now established +at the Prescott Arms are known to her." + +"Oh, all of them, certainly." + +"And Hartley Wiggins among the rest?" + +"That, Mr. Ames, is most unkind," she declared earnestly. "She has +told me that she was not in the least interested in Mr. Wiggins." + +"And she told me the same thing, but I do not feel sure of it! But +what if she is! You are not really interested in him yourself!" + +In the library at Hopefield Manor I should not have thought of speaking +to Cecilia Hollister in any such fashion; but the flying train gave +wings to my daring. I was surprised at my own temerity, and more +surprised that she did not seem to resent my new manner of speech. She +did not, however, vouchsafe any reply to my statement, but changed the +subject abruptly. + +My description of the ghost had taken considerable time, and we were +now running through the tunnels and would soon be at the end of our +journey. She put on her hat and veil without making it necessary for +us to discontinue our talk. A certain languor that had marked her at +her aunt's vanished. There was a clearer light in her eye, and as I +helped her into her coat I felt that here was a woman to whose high +qualities I had done scant justice. + +"I count on finishing my errand and taking the two-seven," she remarked. + +"That's a short time to allow yourself. I've heard that it's a dreary +business chasing the employment agencies." + +"Not if you know where not to go. If you 'll get me a machine of some +sort I 'll be off at once." + +"I fear I shan't conclude my own business so soon; but if you will +honor me at luncheon?"-- + +This last was at the door of a taxicab I had found for her. + +"Sorry, Mr. Ames, but it's out of the question. I hope to see you at +dinner to-night. And please"-- + +"Yes, Miss Hollister"-- + +"Please remember that you are Aunt Octavia's guest, and don't annoy her +by failing to appear at dinner. You know you have n't fixed that +chimney yet!" + +Her smile left me well in the air; I stood staring after the very +commonplace cab as it rolled away with her, my mind a whirling chaos of +emotion. The crowd jostled me impatiently; for other people, not +breathing celestial ether from an hour of Cecilia Hollister's society, +were bent upon the day's business. + +I set off at once for Pepperton's office, where I learned that the +architect was out of town; but his chief clerk greeted me courteously. +I told him frankly that I wanted to look at the plans of Hopefield +Manor to enable me to learn the exact lines of the chimneys. He +confessed surprise that they were causing trouble, and expressed regret +that they were not in the office. + +"Miss Hollister sent for them this morning, and I have just given them +to a young woman who bore a note from her. Ordinarily I should not +have let them go, but the note was peremptory, and Miss Hollister is a +friend of Mr. Pepperton's, you know, and a person I'm sure he would not +refuse. We're at work now on plans for a cathedral she proposes +building for the Bishop of Manila." + +I was not surprised that Octavia Hollister should be building +cathedrals in the Orient,--I was beyond that,--but I was taken aback to +find that she had anticipated me in my rush for the plans of her house. +Clearly, I was dealing with a woman who was not only immensely amusing +but exceedingly shrewd as well. Could it be possible after all that +she was herself playing ghost merely for her own entertainment! She +was capable of it; but I had satisfied myself that she could not have +performed the tricks of which I had been the victim the night previous +unless she possessed some rare vanishing power like that of the East +Indian mystics. + +"May I ask who came for the plans?" + +"I judged the young woman to be a maid, or perhaps she was Miss +Hollister's secretary." + +I had given little heed during my short stay at Hopefield Manor to Miss +Hollister's personal attendant. I had passed her in the halls once or +twice, a young woman of twenty-five, I should say, fair-haired and +blue-eyed. She might herself be the ghost, now that I thought of it; +but this seemed the most unlikely hypothesis possible,--and there was +no difficulty in accounting for her flight to town, for there were many +horses and vehicles in the Hopefield stable, and trains were frequent. + +"If there is anything further, Mr. Ames"-- + +I roused myself to find the chief clerk regarding me impatiently, and I +thanked him and hurried away. + +At my own office my assistant pounced upon me wrathfully. He was half +wild over the pressure of vexatious business, and had just been +engaging in a long-distance conversation with a country gentleman at +Lenox which had left him in bad temper. I was explaining to him the +seriousness of my errands at Hopefield, rather unconvincingly I fear, +and the fact that I must return at once, when the office-boy entered my +private room to say that three gentlemen wished to see me immediately. +They had submitted cards, but had refused to state the nature of their +business. It was with a distinct sensation of surprise that I read the +names respectively of Percival B. Shallenberger, Daniel P. Ormsby, and +John Stewart Dick. + +"Show the gentlemen in," I said promptly, greatly to the disgust of my +assistant, who retired to deal with several clients whom I had passed +in the reception-room fiercely walking the floor. + +I had imagined all the suitors established at the Prescott Arms. As +the three appeared clad in light automobiling coats, I could not +forbear a smile at their grim appearance. Shallenberger, the novelist, +and Ormsby, the knit-goods manufacturer, were big men; Dick was much +shorter, though of compact and sturdy build. They growled surlily in +response to my greeting, and Ormsby closed the door behind them. Dick +seemed to be the designated spokesman, and he advanced to the desk +behind which I sat, with a stride and manner that advertised his +belligerent frame of mind. + +"Mr. Ames," he began, "we have come here to speak for ourselves and +certain other gentlemen who are staying for a time at the Prescott +Arms." + +"Gentlemen of the committee, welcome to our office," I replied, greatly +amused by his ferocity. + +My tone caused the others to draw in defensively behind him. + +"We want you to understand that your conduct in accompanying a lady +that I shall not name to the city is an act we cannot pass in silence. +Your conduct in going to Hopefield Manor was in itself an affront to +us, but your behavior this morning passes all bounds. We have come, +sir, to demand an explanation!" + +At a glance this was a situation I dare not take seriously. In any +circumstances the fact that these men had followed me to my office to +rebuke me for accompanying Cecilia Hollister to town was absurd. This +young Mr. Dick was absurd in himself. His gray cap had twisted itself +oddly to the side of his head, and a bang of black hair lay at a +piratical angle across his forehead. Behind him Ormsby, the knit-goods +man, tugged at a brown moustache; Shallenberger's blue eyes snapped +wrathfully. + +"Mr. Dick," I said soberly, "I have heard of you as the original +pragmatist of Nebraska, and as I am a mere ignorant chimney-doctor, to +whom the later philosophical meaning of that term is only so much punk, +I must identify you with that more obvious meaning of the word which is +within my grasp. Mr. Dick, and gentlemen of the committee, you are +meddlesome persons!" + +"Meddlesome!" cried Dick, heatedly, and leaning toward me across my +desk, "do I correctly understand, sir, that you mean to insult us?" + +"Nothing could be further from my purpose. But I cannot permit you to +imagine that I'm going to allow you to beard me in my office and +criticise my conduct in regard to Miss Cecilia Hollister or anybody +else. As a philosopher from the fertile corn-lands of Nebraska, I +salute you with admiration; as a critic of my ways and manners, I show +you the door!" + +This I did a bit jauntily, and I had a feeling that I was playing my +part well. But the young man before me seemed to swell with the rage +that surged within him. He broke out furiously, beating the air with +his fist. + +"You not only insult this committee, but you speak with intentional +disrespect of my native state, and of the great philosophical school of +which I am a disciple. Am I right?" + +"You are eminently right, Mr. Dick. Neither the corn, the +philosophical schools, nor the packing-house statistics of your native +Omaha interest me a particle. So far as I am personally concerned you +may go back to your wigwam on the tawny Missouri as soon as you please." + +"Then," he broke forth explosively, "then, sir, by Minerva's pale brow, +and by all the gods at once, I brand you"-- + +"Put the brand on hot, little one! Make it a good strong curse while +you're about it!" + +He choked with rage for a moment; then he controlled himself with +painful effort. + +"My personal grievances must wait," continued Dick, brokenly, "but +speaking for the committee I wish to say that your attentions to the +young lady whom you have dared, sir, to name, are obnoxious to us." + +"Nothing less than that!" added Shallenberger. + +"We will not stand for it," growled Ormsby's heavy bass. + +"Mr. Shallenberger," I replied evenly, "as a member of the great +Hoosier school of novelists I have the most profound respect for your +talents. My office-boy is dead to the world for weeks after the +appearance of a novel from your pen. But your interference in my +private affairs is beyond all reason. And as for you, Mr. Ormsby, I +dare say your knit-goods are worthy of the fame of the pent-up Utica +from which you come. But to you and all of you, I bid defiance. I +return to Hopefield Manor by the four-fourteen express." + +I rose and bowed coldly in dismissal; but the trio stood their ground +stubbornly. + +"I tell you, sir, our organization is complete!" declared Dick. "We +signed a gentleman's agreement only last night, for the express purpose +of excluding you, and you cannot enter as a competitor. You are only +an outsider, and we don't intend to have you interfering with our +affairs." + +"By the pink left ear of Venus!" I blurted, "is it a trust?" + +"You put it coarsely, Mr. Ames, but"-- + +"A suitors' trust? Then if I read the newspapers correctly, your +organization is against public policy and in contravention of the +anti-trust law. But may I inquire why, if you have perfected a +combination of Miss Hollister's suitors, I found Lord Arrowood this +morning sitting on a stone by the roadside, evidently in the greatest +dejection. Can it be possible that an insurgent has crept into your +organization and incurred the displeasure of the regulars?" + +"We ruled him out," Shallenberger burst forth, "because he was a +foreigner and not entitled to a place among free-born Americans! That +is one reason; and for another, the colors of his half-hose were an +offense to me, personally." + +"And for another reason," interposed Ormsby, "he had no money with +which to pay his board at the Prescott Arms. For this just cause the +landlord ejected him shortly after breakfast this morning." + +"Then there is already a rift in the lute!" I returned. "No trust of +suitors is stronger than its weakest link. By the bloody footprints of +our forefathers on the snows of Valley Forge, I stand for the right of +the American girl to choose where she will. You may perch on the hills +about Hopefield Manor, and besiege Cecilia Hollister till the end of +time, but my hand is raised against your unrighteous compact, and I am +in the fight to stay! Go back to the Prescott Arms, gentlemen, and +assure your associates in this hideous compact of my most distinguished +consideration and tell them to go to the devil." + + +I had gone to the St. Parvenu Hotel to call upon a Washington lady who +had been making life a burden to my assistant, and on coming out into +Fifth Avenue shortly after one, bethought me of the Asolando Tea-Room. +My interview with the committee of the suitors had driven from my mind +practically every consideration and every interest not centred in +Hopefield Manor. My thoughts turned gratefully to the Asolando, where +only a few days ago I had been precipitated into the strangest +adventures my eventless life had known. + +A strange face was visible at the cashier's desk as I entered the +tea-room. I passed on, finding the place quite full, but I took it as +a good omen that the seventh table from the right was unoccupied, and I +hastily appropriated it. A waitress appeared promptly, murmuring,-- + + "There are no birds in last year's nest,"-- + +and recommended a Locker-Lampson sandwich, whose contents the girl told +me were secret, but it proved to be wholly palatable. As I drank my +tea and ate the sandwich I surveyed the decorated menu card with +interest, and found pleasurable excitement in discovering an item +directing attention to "Pickles _à la_ Hezekiah, 15 cents." + +The delightful Hezekiah must, then, have impressed herself upon the +_deus ex machina_ of the Asolando on her brief day there, thus to have +won this recognition. And further on I noted, among the desserts, +_Pêche Cécilie_, with even greater interest and satisfaction. Miss +Hollister's nieces were among ten thousand young women, and it was +quite believable that their brief tenure of office in the tea-room had +fixed them permanently in the heart of the unknown proprietor. + +The girl at the cash-desk was reading, her head bent as demurely as +Hezekiah's had been on that memorable afternoon; but I did not care for +the stranger's profile. I tried to fancy Cecilia in cap and apron +serving these tables, but my imagination was not equal to the task. + +Cecilia occupied my mind now. The visit of the furious suitors to my +office had stirred in me thoughts and aspirations that had never known +harborage in my breast before. The presumption of those fellows had +exceeded anything I had known in my contact with human kind, and +instead of frightening me away from Hopefield Manor, they had called my +own attention to the strategic importance of my present position as a +guest in Miss Octavia's house. Here was a siege of suitors indeed; but +I was resolved to make the most of my position within the barricade. + +As these thoughts ran through my mind, I was finishing my _Pêche +Cécilie_ (I spurn all sweets ordinarily), when I became interested in +the unusual conduct of a young woman who had entered the front door +briskly and walked with a business-like air to the cashier's desk. The +girl within the wicket rose promptly, opened the screen, and without +parley of any sort, emptied the contents of her till into the visitor's +reticule. With a nod and a smile and a moment's careless survey of the +room, the girl departed, swinging the reticule in her hand. A long +roll she carried under her arm confirmed my identification. It was +Miss Octavia Hollister's Swedish maid; and the roll, beyond +peradventure, contained the plans she had obtained at Pepperton's +office. + +The girl was well-featured, neat of figure, and becomingly gowned, and +as I watched her leave the shop the lightness of her step, something +smooth and flowing in her movements, interested me. I did not know +what business she had to be robbing the Asolando money-drawer, but it +was altogether possible that she was the Hopefield ghost! + +On the whole, when I had finally torn myself away from my +assistant,--who made no attempt to conceal his doubts as to my +sanity,--and had settled myself in the four-fourteen express with the +afternoon papers, I was fully satisfied with the day's adventures. + + + + +XII + +THE RIDDLE OF THE SIBYL'S LEAVES + +I had told the coachman in the morning not to trouble to meet me on my +return, and I engaged the village liveryman to drive me to the house +for hire. As we approached Hopefield I saw the Napoleonic figure of +John Stewart Dick in the roadway. He had evidently been waiting for +me. He held up his hand with the superb, impersonal scorn of a Fifth +Avenue policeman, and the driver checked his horse. + +"I gave you warning," he said impressively. "If you return to the +house the consequences will be upon your own head." + +"Thank you," I replied courteously. "You lay yourself open to the +severest penalties of the law in attempting to intimidate me. I have +enlisted for the whole campaign. Sick chimneys require my immediate +professional attention. If my bark sink, 't is to another sea. Be +good, dear child, let those who will be clever; and kindly omit +flowers." + +As the driver slapped his reins, Dick sprang out of the way, muttering +words that proved the shallowness of his philosophic temper. The +liveryman expressed his disapproval of the pragmatist in profane terms +as we entered the grounds. + +"There's a heap o' talk in the village," he observed. "They do say the +old lady 's cracked, if I may so speak of her; and that there's ghosts +in the house. And the conduct of the gentlemen at the Prescott is most +remarkable. The word 's passed that they're all dippy about the young +Miss Hollister that lives with her aunt. I reckon all rich people are +a bit cracked. It appears to go with the money. Mr. Bassford +Hollister,--he's the old lady's brother,--he's just as bad as any of +'em. I've drove in these parts fifteen year, and I 've worked a heap +for the rich, but I never seen nothin' like the Hollisters. They say +Mr. Bassford is about broke now. Had his share of the baby-wagon money +and blew it in, and now the old lady's marryin' off the girls and he +gets no money out of her if he takes a hand in that game. She's doin' +it to suit herself. That Bassford is always up to somethin' queer. +Yesterday he sat in the village street countin' the number of people he +saw chewin' gum. Hung around the school-house watchin' the children to +see how many had their jaws goin'. Takin' notes just like the census +man and tax assessor. Told our doctor in the village he was figurin' +the amount of horse-power the American people put into gum-chewing +every year, and expects to find some way of usin' it to run machinery. +It's harmless, Doc says. He calls it just the Hollister idiosyncrasy, +if that's the word. But I reckon it's idiotsyncrasy all right. I wish +you good luck of your place, sir." + +He evidently believed me to be some sort of upper servant, and this +added to my joy of the day. With my good humor augmented by the +interview, I entered the house. A strange footman admitted me, and I +went to my room at once without meeting any one else. + +The man followed me with a penciled note, signed with Cecilia's +initials, requesting my presence below as soon as possible, as she +wished to see me before dinner. The thought that she wished to see me +at any time filled me with elation; and her few lines scratched on a +correspondence card were a pleasing addendum to our conversation of the +morning. I only wondered whether I should find her the sober, reserved +young woman of our earlier acquaintance, or whether she would choose to +renew the good comradeship of our talk on the train. The finding of my +assistant's telegraphed resignation on my dressing-table, to take +effect in January, had not the slightest effect upon the lofty minarets +in which my fancy now found lodgment. It pleased me to believe that +fighting blood still pulsed in the last of the house of Ames, and that +I had hurled defiance at the organized band of suitors that guarded the +Hopefield gates and picketed the surrounding hills. + +My question as to which Cecilia I should find in the library was +quickly answered. Her frank smile, the candor of her eyes, confessed a +new tie between us; we were becoming conspirators within the main +conspiracy, whatever its character might be. + +"As to Providence and the cook--what luck?" I asked. + +"Oh, I managed that very easily. I ran into some friends who were +going abroad for the winter. They have a staff of unusual servants, +and were anxious to keep them together until their return. I promptly +engaged them all, and they are even now installed. I came up on the +train with them, and as they are unusually intelligent and biddable, +they agreed to stray in in a casual and desultory way through the +afternoon. Aunt Octavia really believed, or pretended she did, which +is just as good, that Providence had sent them, and was delighted. The +laundress--the last to appear--has just arrived, and Aunt Octavia is in +fine humor. She did n't even ask me how I came off in my encounter at +the dentist's. She had filled the pie-pantry and had a good time while +I was gone." + +"Well, I have had an adventure of my own," I remarked, after expressing +my relief that she had solved the servant difficulty with so much ease. +"A committee of gentlemen waited on me in my office on a matter of +grave importance." + +She lifted her brows, and folded her hands upon her knees--it was a +pretty way she had. + +"Was it the freedom of the city, or some high recognition of your +professional ability, Mr. Ames?" + +"Oh, far more exciting! Three gentlemen, representing the suitors' +trust now maintaining headquarters at the Prescott Arms, warned me +solemnly to keep off the grass. In other words, I am not to interfere +with their designs upon the heart of Miss Cecilia Hollister." + +She flung open a fan, held it at arm's length, and scrutinized the +daffodils that were traced upon it. + +"So they dared you?" + +"So they dared me. And I took the dare." + +"Why?" + +Her eyes met mine gravely, but behind her pretty _moue_ a smile lurked +delightfully. + +[Illustration: Her eyes met mine gravely.] + +"If I should tell you now it would be flirting, which is a sin." + +"I had imagined, Mr. Ames, that that sort of thing came easy to you. +But if it's sinful, of course"-- + +"But you do not rule me out! You will give me a chance"-- + +My earnestness caused her manner to change suddenly. Her beautiful +gravity came like a swift falling of starlit twilight. I had never +been so happy as at this moment. Preposterous as were the +circumstances of my presence in the house, the juxtaposition of Cecilia +Hollister gave me unalloyed delight. The animosity of the gentlemen at +the Prescott Arms--an animosity which the interview in my office had +doubtless intensified--quickened my satisfaction in thus being within +the walls that guarded the lady of their adoration. She had not +answered me, and I felt my heart pounding in the silence. + +"I want to serve you, now, hereafter, and always," I added. "These men +can have no claim upon you greater than that of any other man who +dares!" + +"No, none whatever," she replied firmly. + +"And the mystery, the whole story, is in the little silver book!" + +She started, flushed, and then laughter visited her lips and eyes. The +book was not in her hands nor in sight anywhere, but I felt that I was +on the right track, and that the little trinket had to do with her +plight and her compact with her aunt. Best of all, the fact that I had +chanced upon this clue gave her happiness. There was no debating that. + +"You had best have a care, Mr. Ames. You have spoken words that would +be treasonable if they came from me, and I must not countenance them." + +"But you will tolerate from me words that you would not permit another +to speak? Do I go too far?" + +She bent her head to one side,--with the slightest inclination, as of a +rose touched by a vagrant wind. + +"If I could only half believe in you," she said, "you might really +serve me. So those gentlemen warned you away! Their presumption is +certainly astounding." + +"They know nothing of the silver book!" + +"They know less than you do,--and you have a good deal to learn, you +know." + +"I am dull enough, but I have no ambition but to read the riddle of the +sibyl's leaves. That and the laying of the ghost are my immediate +business. As for the gentlemen at the Prescott, including my old +friend Hartley Wiggins, I am not in the least afraid of them. My hand +is raised against them. If it's a case of the test of Ulysses over +again, I 'm as likely as any of them to bend the bow." + +I thought this well spoken, but she seemed amused, though without +unkindness, by the earnestness of my speech. + +"If your wit is equal to your valor, you may go far. But"--and she +turned her eyes full upon me--"we must play the game according to the +rules." + +"And as for Hartley Wiggins"-- + +She sat up very straight, and the sudden disdain in her face startled +me. I had forgotten my eavesdropping in the clump of raspberries on +the day of my arrival. Certainly Wiggins had been decidedly in the +race then, and my heart thumped in resentment as I recalled her own +message, all compact of encouragement, which I had borne to Wiggins at +the Prescott Arms. + +"I will tell you something, Mr. Ames. This afternoon, as I drove from +the station, I came round by the lake, merely to cool my eyes on the +water, and I saw Mr. Wiggins and my sister seated on a wall in an old +orchard. They were so busily engaged that they did not see me. At +least he did not; but I think Hezekiah did." + +"Hezekiah," I answered, relieved by the nature of her disclosure, which +could not but prejudice Wiggins' case, "Hezekiah is fond of orchards. +I dare say this was the same one in which I had a charming talk with +her myself. Doubtless she was amusing herself with Wiggins just as she +did with me. She finds the genus homo entertaining." + +"She is the dearest girl in the world,--the sweetest, the loveliest, +the brightest. Mr. Wiggins has treated her outrageously. He has taken +advantage of her youth and susceptible nature." + +"His punishment is sure," I answered complacently. "Hezekiah laughed +when I mentioned his name. And you frown to-day at the thought of him." + +"Aunt Octavia is coming," she remarked, feigning at once a careless +air; but I was content that she let my remark pass unchallenged. + +Miss Octavia's entrances were always effective. She appeared to-night +charmingly gowned, but the bright twinkle in her eyes made it clear +that no matter of dress could affect her humor or spirit. She greeted +me, as she always did, as though our acquaintance were a matter of +years rather than of days. I even imagined that she seemed pleased to +find me back again. She asked no questions as to my day's occupations, +but as we went in to dinner sallied forth cheerfully upon a description +of her own activities. + +"After I had baked my required quota of pies this morning, I sought +recreation at the traps. The stable-boy who has been pulling the +string for me having struck-work, it most providentially happened that +I espied Lord Arrowood hanging on the edge of the maple tangle beyond +the barn. I summoned him at once and put him to work managing the +traps for me, finding him most efficient. He seemed extremely +despondent, and after I had satisfied myself that two out of three was +not an impossible record for one of my years, I brought him to the +house and made tea for him. I left the room for a moment--I had taken +him into the kitchen where, during the incumbency of the regular cook I +hardly dare venture myself, and he made himself comfortable quite near +the range. The pies on which I had been engaged all morning lay +cooling near him. I had composed twenty-nine pies,--I am an excellent +mathematician, and I could not have been mistaken in the count. What +was my amazement to find, after his lordship's departure, that one pie +was missing! The pan in which it was baked I discerned later, jammed +into a barrel of excellent Minnesota flour. My absence from the room +was the briefest; his lordship must indeed be a prestidigitateur to +have made way with the pie so expeditiously." + +"His lordship was doubtless hungry," I suggested. "Even nobility must +eat. I passed Lord Arrowood in the highway early this morning, sitting +upon a stone, with sundry items of hand-baggage reposing beside him. I +have rarely seen any one so depressed." + +"He belongs to an ancient house," remarked Miss Octavia. "He is +descended from either Hengist or Horsa,--I forget which, but it does +not greatly matter. The missing pie, I may add, was an effect in +Westchester pippin; and as our American experiment in self-government +bores him, I take it as significant that he chanced upon food that is +the veritable sacrament of democracy." + +"Now that the little matter of the servants has been adjusted, we must +have a care lest the newly-arrived phalanx, which Providence so kindly +sent to you to-day, is not stampeded by any further manifestations of +the troubled spirit of the unfortunate Briton who was hanged on the +site of this house." + +"Mr. Ames," replied Miss Octavia impressively, "that matter is entirely +in your hands." + +"But if I could see the plans of this house, I should be better able to +grapple with his ghostship." + +I had thrown this out in the hope of eliciting some remark from her +touching the Swedish maid's visit to Pepperton's office; but Miss +Octavia met my gaze unflinchingly. + +"You are a clever man, Mr. Ames, and I have every confidence that you +will not only solve the mystery of the library chimney but find the +ghost that switched off the lights on the stair last night. I prefer +that you should accomplish these feats without any help from the plans. +I myself have no suggestions. I am gratified that you are meeting the +emergencies that have risen here with so much determination, but it is +what I should expect of the son of Arnold Ames of Hartford. +Opportunity is all that any of us need to find ourselves truly great, +and if, in the ordinary course of our lives, the gate does not open +freely, we are justified in picking the lock. When I determined to +seek adventures in my old age, I resolved that I should miss no chance, +and that I should be prepared for any beckoning of the hand of fate. +An odd fancy struck me at the beginning of my new life that Boston +would some day be the starting-point of some interesting experience. +This has not yet developed, but in order that I may be prepared for +anything that may occur I keep a blue-silk umbrella constantly checked +at the Parker House. The presence of the little brass check in my +purse is a constant reminder that Boston may one day call me." + +A discussion of the Parker House umbrella followed, Cecilia and I +joining, and it proved so fruitful a topic that it carried us to our +coffee. + +Coffee-making, in a machine she had herself contrived, was always +attended with rites that required deliberation, and while she performed +them Miss Hollister continued to amuse us. + +"You may not know," she remarked, in one of her charming irrelevant +outbursts, "that the most important furniture transactions effected in +this country are those negotiated daily by the head-waiters of the +Fifth Avenue restaurants. Such is, I assure you, the fact. These +gentlemen, who have attained front rank among our predatory rich, allow +no one to dine at the inns they dominate who does not first purchase a +table and chairs at a profit of at least two hundred per cent over the +original Grand Rapids cost, the furniture thus purchased reverting in +every case to the party of the first part after the purchasers have +eaten to their satisfaction. The Fifth Avenue head-waiters are not +only the most absolute autocrats of our time, but the most acute +students of human nature among us. The sale of the tables by the lords +of the dining-rooms is alone worth a fortune every season at our +fashionable victualing houses and, in addition, the humbler members of +the minor orders of waiters, who merely fetch and carry, are obliged to +share their gratuities with their august chiefs." + +"The system is iniquitous," I declared. "It's enough to pay two prices +for the food without buying the hotel furniture." + +"The system, Mr. Ames, is wholly admirable, if you will pardon me for +expressing a difference of opinion. We cannot do less than admire the +austere genius before which mere plutocrats and men of affairs meekly +bow. In making my own investments I would rather have the advice of +Alphonse at the Hotel Pallida than that of the president of the +strongest trust company on Manhattan Island. The varying size of the +sums he receives for the dining-room furniture is the best possible +indication of the condition of the market. When a citizen of Pittsburg +will pay no more than one hundred dollars for the use of a table to eat +from at the Pallida you may be sure that a panic impends. By the way, +I proposed to Alphonse last winter the organization of a limited +company of leading head-waiters to control the waiting industry of +Fifth Avenue. It was my idea that some special forms of torture might +be devised for calculating persons--usually readers of New York letters +in provincial newspapers--who think a waiter entitled to only ten per +cent of the bill, and this could best be managed by an arrangement +between the five or six magnates who control the more gilded and +imposing refectories. I suggested the placing of a special mark in the +hats of the ten-per-cent fiends, so that wherever they dine the symbol +of their indiscreet frugalities would be apparent to the initiated eye. +It is another of my notions that the head-waiter and his humble slave +should present a formal bill for their services, while the hotel or +restaurant should merely be tipped. In this way the more important +service would receive its due consideration. The sole office of the +proprietor is to provide the head-waiter a place in which to follow his +profession. Alphonse is impressed with my ideas, and has even offered +to make me a director of the company." + +"I suppose that you won the regard of Alphonse, the magnificent, only +by the most princely tips through many years of acquaintance, Miss +Hollister." + +"On the other hand, Mr. Ames, I never gave him a cent in my life; but +last Christmas, in recognition of his friendliness in warning me +against an alligator-pear salad, at a moment when that vegetable was at +the turn of the season, I knit him a pair of blue worsted bed-room +slippers, which he received with the liveliest expressions of delight." + +Three suitors were announced at this moment, and I slipped away without +excuses, while Miss Octavia and Cecilia adjourned to the library. + +The ghost, I had sworn, should not baffle me another night. + + + + +XIII + +I DISCOVER TWO GHOSTS + +As I crossed the second-floor hall, I passed the Swedish maid, walking +toward Miss Octavia's room. I was somewhat annoyed to find, on looking +over my shoulder to make sure of her destination, that she, too, had +paused, her hand on Miss Octavia's door, and was watching me with +interest. She vanished immediately; but to throw her off the track I +went to my own room, closed the door noisily, and then came out quickly +and ran up to the third floor. + +Bassford Hollister's mysterious exit had lingered in my mind as the +most curious incident of the eventful Friday night. Having been +baffled in my effort to get hold of the architect's plans, my thought +now was to await in the upper part of the house a repetition of the +various phenomena that had so puzzled me. By the process of exclusion +I had eliminated nearly every plausible theory, but if the ghost +manifested himself with any sort of periodicity (and the hour of the +chimney's queer behavior had been nine) I was now prepared to meet him +in the regions he had chosen for his exploits. When it is remembered +that I had always been most timorous, not at all anxious to shine in +any heroic performances, it will be understood that the atmosphere of +Hopefield Manor was exerting a stimulating effect upon my courage. Or, +more likely, my inherent cowardice had been brought into subjection by +my curiosity. + +I had a pretty accurate knowledge by this time of the position and +function of all the electric switches between the lower hall and the +fourth floor, but I tested them as I ascended, glancing down now and +then to make sure I was not observed. From the sound of voices in the +library I judged that most of Cecilia's suitors must now have arrived, +and so much the better, I argued; for with Miss Octavia and her niece +fully occupied, I could the better carry on my ghost-hunt above stairs. + +At a quarter before nine I switched off the lights on the third and +fourth floors, and established myself at the head of the stairway, and +quite near the trunk-room door. This door I had opened, as I fancied +that if Bassford Hollister were at the bottom of the business, he would +probably wish to find his way to the roof again. So far as I was able +to manage it, the stage was in readiness for the entrance of the +goblin. And I may record my impression, that as we wait for a +visitation of this sort, it is with a degree of credence in things +supernatural, to which we would not ordinarily confess. In spite of +ourselves we expect something to appear, something unearthly, +impalpable, and unresponsive to those tests we apply to the known and +understood. + +The clock below struck nine upon these meditations, and almost upon the +last stroke I heard a sound that set my nerves tingling. I crouched in +the dark waiting. Some one was coming toward me, but from where? The +bottom of a well at midnight was not blacker than the fourth floor, but +the switch lay ready to my hand, and my pockets were stuffed with +matches of the sort that light anywhere. The stairways were all +carpeted, as I have said, and yet some one was ascending bare treads, +lightly, and with delays that suggested a furtive purpose. Meanwhile, +as a background for this unreality, murmurs of talk and occasional +laughter rose from the library. + +This concealed stairway, wherever it was, could not be of interminable +length, and I had counted, I think, fifteen steps of that strange +ascent when it ceased. I heard a fumbling as of some one seeking a +latch, and suddenly a light current of air swept by me, but its clean +fresh quality was not in itself disturbing. I stooped and struck a +match smartly on the carpet and at the same time clicked the switch. I +should say that not more than ten seconds passed from the moment the +soft rush of air had first advertised the opening of a passage near me +until the hall was flooded with the glow of the electric lamps +overhead. My match had also performed its office, but finding the +electric current behaving itself normally, I blew it out. What I saw +now interested me immensely. + +In the solid wall, near the stair, and almost directly opposite the +trunk-room, a narrow door had swung outward,--a neat contrivance, so +light in its construction that it still swayed on its concealed hinges +from the touch of the hand that had released it. How it had opened or +what had become of the prowler who had unlatched it remained to be +discovered. It seemed impossible that whoever or whatever had climbed +the hidden stairway had descended, nor had I been conscious of a +ghostly passing as on the previous night. I had only my senses to +apply to this problem, and their efficiency was minimized for a moment +by fear. + +The opening in the wall engaged my attention at once, and I was +steadied by the thought that here was a practical matter susceptible of +investigation. I stepped within the door and lighted a candle; and +just as the wick caught fire, click went a switch somewhere, and out +went the hall lamps. But having, so to speak, put my foot to the +mysterious stair I would not turn back, and I continued on down the +steps. + +Great was my astonishment to find that I had apparently stepped from a +new into an old house. The stair treads were worn by long use, the +plaster walls that inclosed them were battered and cracked, and I +seemed to have plunged from the glory of Hopefield into some dim lost +passage of a domicile of another era, that lay within or beneath the +walls of the Manor. As I slowly descended, holding high my candle, I +recalled, not without a qualm, the story of the British soldier whom +tradition or superstition linked to the site of Miss Hollister's +property. This stairway might certainly have been built in the early +days of the republic, and it refuted my disdain of the ghost-myth on +the theory that new houses are inhospitable to spirits. + +At the foot of the stair I found two rooms, one on either side of a +small hall, and these, also, were clearly part of an old house that +seemed to be somehow merged into the Hollister mansion. I remembered +now that the mansion stood wedged against a rough spur of rock, and +that the front and rear entrances were upon different levels, and it +was conceivable that the back part of the mansion might inclose these +rooms of an earlier house that had occupied the same site; why they +should have been retained was beyond me. + +Through the carefully-preserved windows, many-paned and quaint, of +these hidden rooms, the infolding walls of the new house were blank and +black. An odd thing indeed, that Pepperton should have lent himself to +the preservation of a commonplace and thoroughly uninteresting relic, +for beyond doubt he must have countenanced it; and Miss Hollister's +prompt removal of the plans from the architect's office became more +enigmatical than ever. + +One door only remained in this shell of the old house, and I hastened +to fling it open, still lighting my way with a candle. Before me lay +the coal cellar, at which I had merely glanced on the morning after my +installation at Hopefield. I now began to get my bearings. I +remembered two iron lids in the cemented surface of an area on the east +side of the house where fuel was deposited, and mounting a few steps +that were of recent construction, and had evidently been built to +afford communication between the remnant of the old house and the +subterranean portion of the new, I found to my relief and satisfaction +beneath one of these openings a short ladder, through which the court +might be reached. Here, then, the manner of ghostly ingress was +illustrated by perfectly plausible means. The lid of the coal-hole was +entirely withdrawn, and a bar of moonlight lay brightening upon a pile +of anthracite at the foot of the ladder. + +The ghost I believed to be still in the upper halls of the house, and +now that I was in a position to watch the ladder by which he had +entered I felt confident that I had cut off his retreat. I was +surveying the cellar, when I heard faint sounds in a new direction. +Far away under the house, and remote from the secret steps, some one +was moving toward me, and rapidly, too! The ghost that I believed to +have disappeared into the fourth-floor hall must then have changed the +line of his retreat and descended by one of the regular stairways. + +I blew out my candle and stood with my back to the wall of the long +corridor on which opened the various store-rooms, the heating plant, +laundry and other accessories of the modern house. My ghost was coming +in haste,--a haste that did not harmonize with the stately tread of the +spooks of popular superstition. A slower pace and I should doubtless +have fled before him; but quick light steps echoed in the dark +corridor, and I gathered courage from the thought that ghosts create +echoes no more than they cast shadows. + +As the steps drew nearer I prepared myself to spring upon him. I must +unconsciously have taken a step, for he paused suddenly, stood still +for a moment, then turned and scampered back the way he had come. +After him I went as fast as I could run. The cement-paved corridor was +four or five feet wide, and I plunged through the dark at my best +speed. At the end of the corridor I was pretty certain of my quarry, +and I made ready to grapple with him. Then as I plunged into the wall +my hands touched a man's face and for a moment clutched the collar of +his coat. He had been waiting for me to strike the wall, and as he +slipped out of my grasp he ran back toward the coal cellar. I had +struck the wall with a force that knocked the wind out of me, but I got +myself together with the loss of only an instant and renewed pursuit. +I had no fear but that, if he attempted to reach the open by means of +the coal-hole, I should catch him on the ladder, and I sprinted for all +I was worth to make sure of him. + +My fleeting grasp of the man's collar and the agility with which he had +slipped from my clasp had settled the ghost question, and I had now +resolved the intruder into a common thief. As we neared the coal +cellar I increased my pace, and felt myself gaining on him; though in +the dark I saw nothing until I glimpsed the faint light from the +coal-hole. + +It had evidently occurred to him by this time that if he tried to climb +the ladder I could easily pull him down by the legs; and when he +reached the cross hall, he turned quickly and dived through the opening +into the hidden chambers. I lost no time in following, but the fellow +put up a good race, and as I reached the old stairway he was mounting +it two steps at a time, as I judged from the sound. I had hoped to +catch and dispose of him without alarming the house, but it seemed +inevitable now that the chase would end in such fashion as to arouse +the company assembled in the library. + +I heard him stumble and fall headlong at the door above; then he shot +off into the still darkened hall, and when I had gained the top I lost +track of him for a moment. I paused and was about to strike a match, +when he resumed his flight, and I was forced to grapple with the fact +that some one else was pursuing him. I held my match unstruck upon +this new disclosure, and stepped back within the concealed door and +waited. Up and down the hall, two persons were running, and when they +reached the ends of the corridor I heard hands touch the wall and the +sound of dodging, and then almost instantly the two runners flashed by +me again. The hall was so dark that I saw nothing, but as the runners +passed the door I felt the rush of air caused by their flight. + +Three or four times this had happened, and then, still without having +made a light, I thrust out my foot at the next return of the unseen +runners. Some one tripped and fell headlong, and I promptly flung +myself upon him. + +My prisoner's resistance engaged my best attention a moment, but when I +had sat upon his legs and got hold of his struggling hands, some one +stole softly by me. My prisoner, too, heard and was attentive. Not +only did I experience the same sensation as on the previous night, of a +passing near by, but I was conscious of the same faint perfume, as of a +flower-scent half-caught in a garden at night, that had added to my +mystification before. Then without the slightest warning the lights +flashed on, and a door closed somewhere, but it was not the hidden one +leading down into the remnant of the old house, for my prisoner's head +and shoulders lay across its threshold. He sighed deeply, bringing my +dazed wits back to him, and I found myself gazing into the blinking +eyes of Lord Arrowood. + +"Bounders, I say, bounders!" he gasped. + +"In the circumstances, Lord Arrowood, I should not call names. Will +you tell me what you mean by running through this house in this +fashion? Stand up and give an account of yourself." + +I helped him to his feet and bent over the stair-rail leading down to +the third floor. Evidently our strange transactions beneath and above +had not disturbed the assembled suitors and their hostesses; but in +common decency Lord Arrowood must be disposed of promptly; there was no +doubt about that. + +"I was an ass to try it," muttered his lordship, pulling his tie into +shape. "And now I want to get out. I want to go away from here." + +He was tugging at the belt of his Norfolk coat, and something between +it and his waistcoat evidently gave him concern. It did not seem +possible that he was really a thief, with chattels concealed on his +person, but he continued to smooth his jacket anxiously, meanwhile +eyeing me apprehensively. He puffed hard from his recent game of +hide-and-seek, and his face was wet with perspiration. Our +conversation was carried on in half-whispers. He was so crestfallen +that if it had n't been for the necessity of maintaining silence I +should have laughed outright. + +"Out with it, my lord. What have you stuck in your coat?" + +"They're bounders, all the rest of 'em," he asserted doggedly, "but I +believe you to be a gentleman." + +"I thank you, Lord Arrowood, for this mark of confidence; but you have +led me a hot chase through this house, and it is clear that you have +something tucked under your coat that you have seized feloniously. +We're standing here in the light, and our voices may at any moment +attract Miss Hollister and the others in the library. Open your coat! +I declare that even if you have lifted a bit of the Hollister plate I +will let you go. My lord, if you please, stand and unfold yourself!" + +Reluctantly, shamefacedly, and still breathing hard from his late +exertions, Lord Arrowood of Arrowood, Hants, England, obeyed me. There +were five buttons to the close-fitting jacket, and the loosening of +every succeeding one seemed to give him pain. Then with his head +slightly lifted as though in disdain of me, he held out for my +observation a pie, in the pan in which it had been baked! The top +crust was browned to a nicety; its edges were crimped neatly; and in +spite of the fact that I had so lately dined sumptuously at Miss +Hollister's hospitable board, at sight of this alluring pastry I +experienced the sharp twinges of aroused appetite. + +[Illustration: He held out for my observation a pie.] + +"Now you have it, and I hope you are satisfied," said Lord Arrowood. +"Kindly allow me to retire by the way I came." + +"First," I replied, sobered by the gravity of his manner, "it would +interest me as a student of character to know just what species of pie +lured you to this burglarious deed." + +"I have reason to think," he answered, with tears in his eyes, "that it +is a gooseberry. I was damned hungry, if you must know the truth, and +having sampled the old lady's pies this morning, and had nothing to eat +since, I saw the coal-hole open and ladder beneath, and the rest of it +was easy. If you and the other chap had n't chased me all over the +estate, I 'd have been off with my pie and no harm done. The old lady +'s insane, you know, and has no manner of use for pies. The house is +haunted in the bargain. When you had about winded me down in the +cellar and cut me off from the ladder and chased me up here, the ghost +took a hand, and if you had n't tripped me and sat on me the spirits +would certainly have nailed me. O Lord, what a night!" + +"It's your impression then that when you got up here somebody else +broke into the game." + +"Quite that, only I should say some_thing_, not some_body_. It was a +lighter step than yours. It had its hand on me once; but I could n't +touch it. Damn me," he concluded hoarsely, "it was n't there to touch!" + +"You are sure you speak the truth when you say that the coal-hole was +open and that you found the ladder there when you came?" + +"No manner of doubt of it. As I have already said, I believe you to be +a gentleman, and between gentlemen certain confidences may pass that +would n't be possible between a gentleman and those _canaille_ down +there." + +He jerked his head scornfully to indicate the suitors below. + +I bowed with such dignity as is possible in addressing a nobleman whom +you have just caught in the act of lifting a gooseberry-pie from a +lady's pantry,--a pie which you hold perforce in your hands. + +"The fact is that I was without the price of food; and to repeat, I was +beastly hungry." + +"Poverty and hunger, my lord, are pardonable sins. And I dare say that +Miss Hollister would be highly pleased to know that a gentleman of your +high position--she told me herself that you were descended from the +Jutish chiefs--had paid so high a compliment to the excellence of her +pastry. Your only error, as I view the matter, lies in the fact that +you have laid felonious hands upon a gooseberry-pie. All gooseberry +pastries are sacred to Hezekiah. My impressions of Hezekiah are the +pleasantest, and I cannot allow you to intervene between her and the +pie I hold in my hands. If you will accompany me below, I will +undertake to gain access to the pie vault, return this pie to its +proper place, and hand you, at the foot of the ladder, an apple-pie in +place of it. I dare say it never will be missed; but from what I know +of Hezekiah, any trifling with her appetite would be a crime indictable +at common law." + +His lordship seemed reassured, and we were about to descend by the +concealed stair when he arrested me. + +"Mr. Ames, you are a gentleman, and possess a generous heart. We +understand each other perfectly. And as I have every reason to believe +that my suit is hopeless, I ask the loan of five dollars until I can +confer with my friend the British consul at New York. I shall sail at +once for England." + +I was moved to pity by his humility. A man who, finding himself +reduced to larceny by hunger, and being unable to win the woman of his +choice, meekly yields to the inevitable, is not a fair mark for +contumely. He stepped down before me into the dark stairway, and I +closed the door after me and followed him. + +I found my way to the pie pantry without difficulty, returned the +gooseberry-pie to its proper shelf, chose an apple-pie and gave it, +with a five-dollar note, to Lord Arrowood. + +At the bottom of the ladder he pressed my hand feelingly, and expressed +his gratitude in terms that would have touched a harder heart than mine. + +Then having closed the coal-hole and hidden the ladder under a pile of +wood, I resumed my pursuit of the ghost. + + + + +XIV + +LADY'S SLIPPER + +I lighted my way with a candle through the lost chambers of the old +house, up the hidden stairway, and out into the fourth-floor hall +again. The old stair, I found on closer observation, reached only from +the second to the fourth floor, and below this had been pieced with +lumber carefully preserved from the earlier house. There was nothing +so strange after all about the hidden stairway, though I was convinced +that this had been no idea of Pepperton's, but that he had merely +obeyed the orders of his eccentric client, the umbrella and +dyspepsia-cure millionaire. + +I had no sooner let myself through the secret door into the upper hall +than I was aware of a disturbance in the library below. I heard +exclamations from the men, and as I ran down toward the third floor +Miss Octavia's voice rose above the tumult. + +"We must have patience, gentlemen. Chimneys are subject to moods just +like human beings; and we are fortunate in having in the house a +gentleman who is an expert in such matters. I do not doubt that Mr. +Ames even now has his hand upon the chimney's pulse, and that he will +soon solve this perplexing problem." + +"If you wait for that man to mend your chimney you will wait until +doomsday." + +So spake John Stewart Dick, taking his vengeance of me with my client +and hostess. I might have forgiven him; but I could not forgive +Hartley Wiggins. + +"He does n't know any more about chimneys than the man in the moon," my +old friend was saying, between coughs. + +And then quite unmistakably I smelt smoke, and bending further over the +rail and peering down the stair-well I saw smoke pouring from the +library into the hall. It seemed to be in greater volume to-night than +at previous manifestations. A gray-blue cloud was filling the lower +hall and rising toward me. I ran quickly to the third floor, to the +chamber whose fireplace was served by the library chimney. The lights +in the third-floor hall winked out as I opened the door,--I heard a +step behind me somewhere; but I did not trouble about this. The switch +inside the unused guest-chamber responded readily to my touch, and on +kneeling by the hearth I found it cold, as I had expected. There was +absolutely no way of choking the library flue at this point, for, as I +had established earlier, all the fireplaces in this chimney had their +independent flues. Pepperton would never have built them otherwise, +and no one but a skilled mason could have tapped the library flue here +or higher up, and the work could not have been done without much noise +and labor. + +The hall outside was still dark, and I did not try the switch. The +pursuit was better carried on in darkness, and I had by this time +become accustomed to rapid locomotion through unlighted passages. I +leaned over the stair-well and heard exclamations of surprise at the +sudden cessation of the smoke, which had evidently abated as abruptly +as it had begun. The windows and doors had been opened, and the +company had returned to the library. + +"Quite extraordinary. Really quite remarkable!" they were saying +below. I heard Cecilia's light laughter as the odd ways of the chimney +were discussed. And as I stood thus peering down and listening, the +Swedish maid's blonde head appeared below me, bending over the +well-rail on the second floor. She too was taking note of affairs in +the library, and as I watched her she lifted her head and her eyes met +mine. Then, while we still stared at each other, the second-floor +lights went out with familiar abruptness, and as I craned my neck to +peer into the blackness above me I experienced once more that ghostly +passing as of some light, unearthly thing across my face. I reached +for it wildly with my hands, but it seemed to be caught away from me; +and then as I fought the air madly, it brushed my cheek again. I have +no words to describe the strange effect of that touch. I felt my scalp +creep and cold chills ran down my spine. It seemingly came from above, +and it was not like a hand, unless a hand of wonderful lightness! +Certainly no human arm could reach down the stair-well to where I +stood. And in that touch to-night there was something akin to a +gentle, lingering caress as it swept slowly across my face and eyes. + +I waited for its recurrence a moment, but it came no more. Then on a +sudden prompting I stole swiftly to the fourth floor, lighted my +candle, and gazed about. I thought it well to let the electric light +alone, for my ghost had once too often plunged me into darkness at +critical moments, and a candle in my hands was not subject to his +trickery. + +The hall was perfectly quiet. The door leading down the hidden stair +was invisible, and I had not yet learned how it might be opened from +the hall, though Mr. Bassford Hollister had undoubtedly left the house +by this means after my interview with him on the roof. And reminded of +the roof, I opened the trunk-room door and peered in. The candle-light +slowly crept into its dark corners, and looking up I marked the +presence of the trap-door secure in the opening. As I stood on the +threshold of the trunk-piled room, my hand on the knob and the candle +thrust well before me, I heard a slight furtive movement to my left and +behind the door. I was quite satisfied now that I was about to solve +some of the mysteries of the night, and to make sure I was +unobserved--for having gone so far alone I wanted no partners in my +investigations--I listened to the murmur of talk below for a moment, +then cautiously advanced my candle further into the room. I was not +yet so valiant, even after all my night-prowlings and explorations of +hidden chambers, but that I thrust the light in well ahead of me and +bent my wrist so that the candle's rays might dispel the last shadow +that lurked behind the door before I suffered my eyes to look upon the +goblin. I took one step and then cautiously another, until the whole +of the trunk-room was well within range of my vision. + +And there, seated on a prodigious trunk frescoed with labels of a dozen +foreign inns, I beheld Hezekiah! + +[Illustration: Seated on a prodigious trunk frescoed with labels of a +dozen foreign inns, I beheld Hezekiah!] + +As I recall it she was very much at her ease. She sat on one foot and +the other beat the trunk lightly. She was bareheaded, and the +candle-light was making acquaintance with the gold in her hair. She +wore her white sweater, as on that day in the orchard; and with much +gravity, as our eyes met, she thrust a hand into its pocket and drew +out a cracker. I was not half so surprised at finding her there as I +was at her manner now that she was caught. She seemed neither +distressed, astonished nor afraid. + +"Well, Miss Hezekiah," I said, "I half suspected you all along." + +"Wise Chimney-Man! You were a little slow about it though." + +"I was indeed. You gave me a run for my money." + +She finished her cracker at the third bite, slapped her hands together +to free them of possible crumbs, and was about to speak, when she +jumped lightly from the trunk, bent her head toward the door, and then +stepped back again and faced me imperturbably. + +"And now that you've found me, Mr. Chimney-Man, the joke's on you after +all." + +She laid her hand on the door and swung it nearly shut. I had heard +what she had heard: Miss Octavia was coming upstairs! She had +exchanged a few words with the Swedish maid on the second-floor +landing, and Hezekiah's quick ear had heard her. But Hezekiah's +equanimity was disconcerting: even with her aunt close at hand she +showed not the slightest alarm. She resumed her seat on the trunk, and +her heel thumped it tranquilly. + +"The joke's on you, Mr. Chimney-Man, because now that you 've caught me +playing tricks you've got to get me out of trouble." + +"What if I don't?" + +"Oh, nothing," she answered indifferently, looking me squarely in the +eye. + +"But your aunt would make no end of a row; and you would cause your +sister to lose out with Miss Octavia. As I understand it, you 're +pledged to keep off the reservation. It was part of the family +agreement." + +"But I'm here, Chimney-pot, so what are you going to do about it?" + +"Mr. Ames! If you are ghost-hunting in this part of the house"-- + +It was Miss Octavia's voice. She was seeking me, and would no doubt +find me. The sequestration of Hezekiah became now an urgent and +delicate matter. + +"You caught me," said Hezekiah, calmly, "and now you've got to get me +out; and I wish you good luck! And besides, I lost one of my shoes +somewhere, and you've got to find that." + +In proof of her statement she submitted a shoeless, brown-stockinged +foot for my observation. + +"The one I lost was like this," and Hezekiah thrust forth a neat tan +pump, rather the worse for wear. "I was on the second floor a bit +ago," she began, "and lost my slipper." + +"In what mischief, pray?" + +"Mr. Ames," called Miss Octavia, her voice close at hand. + +"I wanted to see something in Cecilia's room; so I opened her door and +walked in, that's all," Hezekiah replied. + +"Wicked Hezekiah! Coming into the house is bad enough in all the +circumstances. Entering your sister's room is a grievous sin." + +"If, Mr. Ames, you are still seeking an explanation of that chimney's +behavior"-- + +It was Miss Octavia, now just outside the door. + +"Don't leave that trunk, Hezekiah," I whispered. "I'll do the best I +can." + +Miss Octavia met me smilingly as I faced her in the hall. She had +switched on the lights, and my candle burned yellowly in the white +electric glow. + +Miss Octavia held something in her hand. It required no second glance +to tell me that she had found Hezekiah's slipper. + +"Mr. Ames," she began, "as you have absented yourself from the library +all evening, I assume that you have been busy studying my chimneys and +seeking for the ghost of that British soldier who was so wantonly slain +upon the site of this house." + +"I am glad to say that not only is your surmise correct, Miss +Hollister, but that I have made great progress in both directions." + +"Do you mean to say that you have really found traces of the ghost?" + +"Not only that, Miss Hollister, but I have met the ghost face to +face,--even more, I have had speech with him!" + +Her face brightened, her eyes flashed. It was plain that she was +immensely pleased. + +"And are you able to say, from your encounter, that he is in fact a +British subject, uneasily haunting this house in America long after the +Declaration of Independence and Washington's Farewell Address have +passed into literature?" + +"You have never spoken a truer word, Miss Hollister. The ghost with +whom or which I have had speech is still a loyal subject of the King of +England. But by means which I am not at liberty to disclose, I have +persuaded him not to visit this house again." + +"Then," said Miss Hollister, "I cannot do less than express my +gratitude; though I regret that you did not first allow me to meet him. +Still, I dare say that we shall find his bones buried somewhere beneath +my foundations. Please assure me that such is your expectation." + +She was leading me into deep water, but I had skirted the coasts of +truth so far; and with Hezekiah on my hands I felt that it was +necessary to satisfy Miss Hollister in every particular. + +"To-morrow, Miss Hollister, I shall take pleasure in showing you +certain hidden chambers in this house which I venture to say will +afford you great pleasure. I have to-night discovered a link between +the mansion as you know it and an earlier house whose timbers may +indeed hide the bones of that British soldier." + +"And as for the chimney?" + +"And as for the chimney, I give you my word as a professional man that +it will never annoy you again, and I therefore beg that you dismiss the +subject from your mind." + +I saw that she was about to recur to the shoe she held in her hand and +at which she glanced frequently with a quizzical expression. This, +clearly, was an issue that must be met promptly, and I knew of no +better way than by lying. Hezekiah herself had plainly stated, on the +morning of that long, eventful day, when she walked into the +breakfast-room in her aunt's absence and explained Cecilia's trip to +town, that it was perfectly fair to dissimulate in making explanations +to Miss Hollister; that, in fact, Miss Octavia enjoyed nothing better +than the injection of fiction into the affairs of the matter-of-fact +day. Here, then, was my opportunity. Hezekiah had thrown the +responsibility of contriving her safe exit upon my hands. No doubt, +while I held the door against her aunt, that remarkable young woman was +coolly sitting on the trunk within, eating another cracker and awaiting +my experiments in the gentle art of lying. + +"Miss Hollister," I began boldly, "the slipper you hold in your hand +belongs to me, and if you have no immediate use for it I beg that you +allow me to relieve you of it." + +"It is yours, Mr. Ames?" + +A lifting of the brows, a widening of the eyes, denoted Miss Octavia's +polite surprise. + +"Beyond any question it is my property," I asserted. + +"Your words interest me greatly, Mr. Ames. As you know, the grim hard +life of the twentieth century palls upon me, and I am deeply interested +in everything that pertains to adventure and romance. Tell me more, if +you are free to do so, of this slipper which I now return to you." + +I received Hezekiah's worn little pump into my hands as though it were +an object of high consecration, and with a gravity which I hope matched +Miss Octavia's own. I was, I think, by this time completely +hollisterized, if I may coin the word. + +"As I am nothing if not frank, Miss Hollister, I will confess to you +that this shoe came into my possession in a very curious way. One day +last spring I was in Boston, having been called there on professional +business. In the evening, I left my hotel for a walk, crossed the +Common, took a turn through the Public Garden, where many devoted +lovers adorned the benches, and then strolled aimlessly along Beacon +Street." + +"I know that historic thoroughfare well," interrupted Miss Hollister, +"as my friend Miss Prudence Biddeford has lived there for half a +century, and once, while I was staying in her house, she gave me her +recipe for Boston brown bread, thereby placing me greatly in her debt." + +"Then, being acquainted with the neighborhood and its sublimated social +atmosphere, you will be interested in the experience I am about to +describe," I continued, reassured by Miss Octavia's sympathetic +attention to my recital. "I was passing a house which I have not since +been able to identify exactly, though I have several times revisited +Boston in the hope of doing so, when suddenly and without any warning +whatever this slipper dropped at my feet. All the houses in the +neighborhood seemed deserted, with windows and doors tightly boarded, +and my closest scrutiny failed to discover any opening from which that +slipper might have been flung. The region is so decorous, and acts of +violence are so foreign to its dignity and repose, that I could scarce +believe that I held that bit of tan leather in my hand. Nor did its +unaccountable precipitation into the street seem the act of a +housemaid, nor could I believe that a nursery governess had thus sought +diversion from the roof above. I hesitated for a moment not knowing +how to meet this emergency; then I boldly attacked the bell of the +house from which I believed the slipper to have proceeded. I rang +until a policeman, whose speech was fragrant of the Irish coasts, bade +me desist, informing me that the family had only the previous day left +for the shore. The house he assured me was utterly vacant. That, Miss +Hollister, is all there is of the story. But ever since I have carried +that slipper with me. It was in my pocket to-night as I traversed the +upper halls of your house, seeking the ghost of that British soldier, +and I had just discovered my loss when I heard you calling. In +returning it you have conferred upon me the greatest imaginable favor. +I have faith that sometime, somewhere, I shall find the owner of that +slipper. Would you not infer, from its diminutive size, and the fine, +suggestive delicacy of its outlines that the owner is a person of +aristocratic lineage and of breeding? I will confess that nothing is +nearer my heart than the hope that one day I shall meet the young +lady--I am sure she must be young--who wore that slipper and dropped it +as it seemed from the clouds, at my feet there in sedate Beacon Street, +that most solemn of residential sanctuaries." + +"Mr. Ames," began Miss Hollister instantly, with an assumed severity +that her smile belied, "I cannot recall that my niece Hezekiah ever +visited in Beacon Street; yet I dare say that if she had done so and a +young man of your pleasing appearance had passed beneath her window, +one of her slippers might very easily have become detached from +Hezekiah's foot and fallen with a nice calculation directly in front of +you. But now, Mr. Ames, will you kindly carry your candle into that +trunk-room?" + +And I had been pluming myself upon the completeness of my +hollisterization! There was nothing for me but to obey, and my heart +sank as my imagination pictured Hezekiah's discomfiture when we should +find her seated on the huge trunk behind the door. And that stockinged +foot already called in appealing accents to the shoe I held in my hand! +The foundations of the world shook as I remembered the compact by which +Hezekiah was excluded from the house, and realized what the impending +discovery would mean to Cecilia, her father, and the wayward Hezekiah, +too! But I was in for it. Miss Octavia indicated by an imperious nod +that I was to precede her into the trunk-room, and I strode before her +with my candle held high. + +But the sprites of mystery were still abroad at Hopefield. The room +was unoccupied save for the trunks. Hezekiah had vanished. Instead of +sitting there to await the coming of her aunt, she had silently +departed, without leaving a trace. Miss Hollister glanced up at the +trap-door in the ceiling, and so did I. It was closed, but I did not +doubt that Hezekiah had crawled through it and taken herself to the +roof. Miss Octavia would probably order me at once to the battlements; +but worse was to come. + +"Mr. Ames," she said, "will you kindly lift the lid of that largest +trunk." + +I had not thought of this, and I shuddered at the possibilities. + +She indicated the trunk upon which Hezekiah had sat and nibbled her +cracker not more than ten minutes before. Could it be possible that +when I lifted the cover that golden head would be found beneath? My +life has known no blacker moment than that in which I flung back the +lid of that trunk. I averted my eyes in dread of the impending +disclosure and held the candle close. + +But the trunk was empty, incredibly empty! My courage rose again, and +I glanced at Miss Octavia triumphantly. I even jerked out the trays to +allay any lingering suspicion. Why had I ever doubted Hezekiah? Who +was she, the golden-haired daughter of kings, to be caught in a trunk? +She had slipped up the ladder while I talked to her aunt and was even +now hiding on the roof; but it was not for me to make so treasonable a +suggestion. Miss Octavia might press the matter further if she liked, +but I would not help her to trap Hezekiah. + +Miss Hollister did not, to my surprise and relief, suggest an +inspection of the roof. She nodded her head gravely and passed out +into the hall. + +"Mr. Ames, if I implied a moment ago that I doubted your story of the +dropping of that tan pump from a Beacon Street roof or window, I now +tender you my sincerest apologies." + +She put out her hand, smiling charmingly. + +"Pray return to the occupations which were engaging you when I +interrupted you. You have never stood higher in my regard than at this +moment. To-morrow you may tell me all you please of the ghost and the +mysteries of this house, and I dare say we shall find the bones of that +British soldier somewhere beneath the foundations. As for that +trifling bit of leather you hold in your hand, it's rather passé for +Beacon Street. The next time you tell that story I suggest that you +play your game of drop the slipper from a window in Rittenhouse Square, +Philadelphia. Still, as I always keep an umbrella in the check-room of +the Parker House, I would not have you imagine that I look upon Boston +as an unlikely scene for romance. The last time I was there a Mormon +missionary pressed a tract upon me in the subway, and I can't deny that +I found it immensely interesting." + + + + +XV + +LOSS OF THE SILVER NOTE-BOOK + +Hezekiah on the roof was safe for a time. Miss Octavia's gentle +rejection of my Beacon Street anecdote and her intimation that Hezekiah +had been an unbilled participant in the comedy of the ghost had been +disquieting, and in my relief at her abandonment of the search I +loitered on downstairs with my hostess. I wished to impress her with +the idea that I was without urgent business. Hezekiah would, beyond +doubt, amuse herself after her own fashion on the roof until I was +ready to release her. As I had quietly locked the trunk-room door and +carried the key in my pocket I was reasonably sure of this. Humility +is best acquired through tribulation, and as Hezekiah sat among the +chimney-crocks nursing one stockinged foot and waiting for me to turn +up with her lost slipper, it would do her no harm to nibble the bitter +fruit of repentance with another biscuit. I should find her much less +sure of herself when I saw fit to seek her on the roof. It was a +pretty comedy we were playing, but it was best that she should not too +complacently take all the curtains. Hezekiah's naughtiness had been +diverting up to a point now reached and passed, but the time had +arrived for remonstrance, admonition, discipline. And it should be my +grateful task to point out the error of her ways and urge her into +safer avenues of conduct. Such were my reflections as I attended Miss +Octavia in her descent. + +The memoranda of my adventures at Hopefield Manor fall under two +general headings. On the one hand was the ghost and the library +chimney; on the other the extraordinary gathering of Cecilia's suitors. +As I followed at Miss Octavia's side, she seemed to have dismissed the +ghost and the fractious chimney from her mind; her humor changed +completely. As in the morning when, unaccountably abandoning her +habitual high-flown speech, she had asked me about Cecilia's silver +note-book, she seemed troubled; and when we had reached the second +floor she paused and lost herself in unwonted preoccupation. + +"Let us sit here a moment," she said, indicating a long davenport in +the broad hall. For the first time her manner betrayed weariness. She +laid her hand quietly on my arm and looked at me fixedly. "Arnold," +she said,--"you will let me call you Arnold, won't you?" she added +plaintively, and never in my life had I been so touched by anything so +sweet and gentle and kind,--"Arnold, if an old woman like me should do +a very foolish thing in following her own whims and then find that she +had probably committed herself to a course likely to cause unhappiness, +what would you advise her to do about it?" + +"Miss Hollister," I answered, "if you trusted Providence this morning +to send you a corps of servants when yours had been most unfortunately +scattered by ghosts or rumors of ghosts, why will you not continue to +have confidence that your affairs will always be directed by agencies +equally alert and beneficent?" + +She flashed upon me that rare wonderful smile of hers; she looked me in +the eyes quizzically with her head bent slightly to one side; but for +once her usual readiness seemed to have forsaken her. Could it be +possible that she was losing faith in her own play-world, and that the +tuneful trumpets of adventure and romance which she had set vibrating +on her own key jarred dully in her ears? It passed swiftly through my +mind that it was incumbent on me to win her back to complete belief in +the potency of the oracles that had called to her old age. She had +dipped her paddle into bright waters and had splashed up all manner of +gay imaginings, and what disasters awaited her now if she beached her +argosy and found no gold at the end of the rainbow! It occurred to me, +prosaic man and chimney-doctor that I was, that no one should be +disappointed who has heard the dream-gods calling at twilight, or +wakened to the chanting of the capstan-song, or heard the timbers +creaking in the stout old caravel of romance as it wallows in the seas +that wash the happy isles. I had not crawled through so many chimneys +but that I still believed that dreams come true, not because they will +but because they must! And in the case of Miss Octavia Hollister I +felt a great responsibility; for what irremediable loss might not +result to a world too little given these days to dreaming, if she, who +at sixty had turned her heart trustfully to adventure, should find only +sorrow and disappointment? The thing must not be! I was feeling the +least bit elated over my success in solving the riddle of the ghost, +and I knew that the hidden chambers and stair would delight her when I +revealed them on the morrow; so I quite honestly sought to restore her +to the joy of life. I felt that she was waiting for me to speak +further, and I plunged ahead. + +"Our meeting in the Asolando was the most interesting thing that ever +happened to me, Miss Hollister. I was rapidly becoming hopelessly +cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in to saucy doubts and fears as to +the promise of life held out to us in the nursery, where, indeed, all +education should begin and end. Your appearance at the Asolando that +afternoon was well-timed to save me from death in a world that was +rapidly losing for me all its illusion and witchery. But now that you +have so readily won me back to the true faith, I beg of you do not +yourself revert to the dreary workaday world from which you rescued me." + +I had never in my life spoken more sincerely. I had never been so +happy as since I knew her, and I was pleading for myself as well as for +her--there where, from her own doorstep and in her own garden, one who +listened attentively might hear the faint roar of trains bound toward +the teeming city along iron highways. It was with relief that I saw my +words had struck home. She touched my hand lightly; then she took it +in both her own. + +"You really believe that; you are not merely trying to please me?" + +"I was never half so much in earnest! Please go on in the way you have +begun. And have no fear that the charts will mislead you, or that the +seas will grind your bark on hidden shoals. Shipwreck, you know, is +one of the greatest joys of our adventures,--we have to be wrecked +first before we find the island of the treasure-chests." + +She sighed softly, but I felt that her spirits were rising. + +"But those men down there? How shall I manage that?" she asked eagerly. + +I snapped my fingers. We must get back into the air again. And it was +remarkable how readily my long-untried wings bore me upward. The +earth, after all, does not bind us so fast! + +"I don't know the game; but I have found out a lot of things without +being told, so tell me nothing! Remember that I have something quite +remarkable, startling even, to show you to-morrow. I have even +overcome, you know, the obstacle you placed in the way of my +discoveries by sending in ahead of me this morning for the plans of the +house." + +I watched her narrowly, but she was in no wise discomfited. + +"Well, I burned them the moment Hilda brought them back," she laughed. +"I had faith in you, and I wanted you to manage it all for yourself. I +rather guessed that you would go to Pepperton. That was when I still +believed." + +"But you must go on believing. Make-believing is the main cornerstone +and the keystone of the arch of the happy life." + +"You are sure you are not mocking a foolish old woman?" + +"You are the wisest woman I ever knew!" I asserted, and my heart was in +the words. + +"I believe you have persuaded me; but Cecilia"-- + +She was again at the point of loosening her hold upon the cord that +linked her shallop to Ariel's isle, but my own youth was resurgent in +me. + +I rose hastily, the better to break the current of her thought. + +"Those men down there! They are in the hands of a higher fate than we +control. I don't know the game"-- + +"But if"--she broke in. + +"But if you gave away the secret, explained it to me, you would throw +me back into my darkest chimney to hope no more. Leave it to me; trust +me; lean upon me! I assure you that all will be well." + +She bent her head and yielded herself to reverie for a moment. Then +she sprang to her feet in that indescribably light, graceful way that +erased at least fifty of her years from the reckoning, and was herself +again. + +"Arnold Ames," she said, laughing a little but gazing up at me with +unmistakable confidence and liking in her eyes, "we will go through +with this to the end. And whether that slipper really fell at your +feet in Beacon Street or in the even less likely precincts of +Rittenhouse Square, or under the windows of the Spanish Embassy in +Washington, I believe that you are my good knight, and that you will +see me safely through this singular adventure." + +And I, Arnold Ames, but lately a student of chimneys, bent and kissed +Miss Octavia's hand. + +[Illustration: And I bent and kissed Miss Octavia's hand.] + +She led the way to the library, where I thought it well to appear for a +moment, and I was heartily glad that I did so. It was joy enough for +any man that he should have earned such glances of hatred and suspicion +as the suitors bent upon me. There they were, some standing, some +seated, about Cecilia. I bowed low from the door, feeling that to +offer my hand to these gentlemen in their present temper would be too +severe a strain upon their manners. As Miss Octavia appeared, several +of them advanced courteously and engaged her in conversation. She +found a seat and called the others to her, on the plea that she wished +to ask them their opinion touching some matter,--I believe it was a +late rumor that Andree, who had gone ballooning to discover the +Hyperboreans, had been heard of somewhere. + +Cecilia appeared distrait, and I wondered what new turn her affairs had +taken. She rose as I crossed the room, and from her manner I judged +that she welcomed this chance of addressing me. + +"You have scorned the library to-night. Has there been trouble? Is +Aunt Octavia alarmed about anything?" + +I was sure that this inquiry covered some ulterior question. Hartley +Wiggins, listening with a bored air to Miss Octavia's discussion of +Andree's fate, glanced in our direction with manifest displeasure in +our propinquity. Cecilia Hollister was a beautiful, charming woman of +the world, but I felt her spell less to-night. It may be that the +presence of Hezekiah's slipper in my inside coat-pocket, pressing +rather insistently against my ribs, acted as a counter-irritant. I +certainly could not imagine myself possessed of one of Cecilia's +slippers! If I had tried my fictitious Beacon Street episode on +Cecilia, she would undoubtedly have expressed her scorn of me. The +hollisteritis germ, that had heretofore infected me only +intermittently, was now exerting its full tonic power. In trying to +hold Miss Octavia to her covenants with the lords of romance, I had +strengthened my own confidence in their bold emprise. The gravity with +which the suitors gave heed to Miss Octavia's ideas on arctic +ballooning touched my humor. Cecilia had but to state her perplexity +and I would interest myself promptly in her business. If I had been +asked that night to enlist in the most hopeless causes I should have +done so without a quibble, and died cheerfully under any barricade. + +Our time was short; at any moment the suitors might cease covertly +glaring at me, drift away from Miss Octavia, and interpose themselves +between me and the girl on whom they had set their collective hearts. + +"You are in difficulty, Miss Cecilia," I said; "please tell me in what +way I may serve you." + +"I don't know why I should appeal to you"-- + +"No reason is necessary. I have told you before that you need only to +command me. We may be interrupted at any moment. Pray go on." + +"I have lost an article of the greatest value to me. It has been taken +from my room." + +For a moment only I read distrust and suspicion in her eyes as it +occurred to her that I had access to every part of the house; but my +manner seemed to restore her confidence. And she could not have +forgotten that her own father had met her secretly on the roof of a +house that was denied him, and that I was perfectly cognizant of the +fact. + +"I am sure you can be of assistance," she said. "There's something +behind this ghost-story; some one has been in and about the house; you +believe that?" + +"Yes. There has really been a sort of ghost, you know." + +She shrugged her shoulders. Cecilia had no patience with ghosts, and +we were losing time. My conversation with Cecilia was annoying +Wiggins, as was plain from his nervousness. Wiggins's courtesy was +unfailing, but there are points at which the restraints of civilization +snap. Cecilia realized that time passed and that she had not stated +her difficulty. She now lowered her voice and spoke with great +earnestness. + +"I went to my room for a moment, while Aunt Octavia was above, with you +I suppose, just after the chimney gave another of its strange +demonstrations. I remembered that I had left my little silver-bound +book, that I usually carry with me, on my dressing-room table. It +contains a memorandum of great importance to me. It positively cannot +be duplicated. I am sure it was there when I came down to dinner. But +it was not on my dressing-table or anywhere to be found." + +"You may be mistaken as to where you left it. You would not be +absolutely positive that you left it on the dressing-table?" + +"There is not the slightest question about it. I had been looking at +it just before dinner. I had sent you a note, you know, immediately +after you came back, and hurried down to see you." + +"Yes. I recall that. You were in the library when I came down. And I +think I remember having seen the little trinket,--slightly smaller than +a card-case, silver-backed and only a few leaves. You had it in your +hand the other night when I came in after Mr. Hume had left." + +She flushed slightly at this, but readily acquiesced in my description. +Miss Octavia's inquiry as to whether I had seen the book came back to +me; and no less clearly her withdrawal of her question almost the +moment she had spoken it. + +I felt the sudden impingement of Hezekiah's slipper upon my own +conscience, if I may so state the matter. Hezekiah, playing ghost, had +confessed to me that she had visited Cecilia's room. Hezekiah, amusing +herself with the library chimney and frightening the servants by +stealing into the forbidden house through the coal-hole, was a culprit +to be scolded and forgiven; but what of Hezekiah mischievously filching +an article of real value to her sister! I did not like this turn of +affairs. I must get back to the roof, find Hezekiah, and compel her to +return the silver book. Only by tactfully managing this could I serve +well all the members of the house of Hollister. But first I must leave +Cecilia with a tranquil mind. + +"I thank you for confiding this matter to me, Miss Hollister. Please +do not attach suspicion to any one until I have seen you again." + +"But if you should be unable to restore"-- + +"I assure you that the book is not lost. It has been mislaid, that's +all. I shall return it to you at breakfast. I give you my word." + +"Do you really mean it?" she faltered. "Please keep this from Aunt +Octavia! I can't tell you how important it is that she be kept in +ignorance of my loss. The consequences, if she knew, might be very +distressing." + +I could not for the life of me see what great importance could attach +to those few leaves of paper in their silver case, but if Miss Octavia +and Hezekiah were interested in it as well as Cecilia, it must have a +significance wholly unrelated to its intrinsic value. It is the way of +professional detectives to suggest impossible theories merely to +conceal their own plans and intentions, and as I had reached a point +where my tongue was astonishingly glib in subterfuge and evasion, I +suggested that it might perhaps have been one of the new servants, or +indeed the Swedish maid. + +"We will look into the matter, Miss Hollister. At breakfast I shall +have something to report. Meanwhile silence is the word!" + +Miss Octavia was carrying the invincible John Stewart Dick away to the +billiard-room. He glared at me murderously as he trailed glumly after +the lady of the manor. The others were crowding about Cecilia again, +and I yielded to them willingly. As I sauntered toward the door Ormsby +detained me a moment. His manner was arrogant and he hissed rather +than spoke. + +"I'm directed to command your presence at the Prescott Arms to-morrow +at twelve o'clock. The business is important." + +"I regret, my dear brother, that I shall be unable to sit with you at +that hour in committee of the whole, and for two reasons. The first is +that I am paired with Lord Arrowood. You refused to take him into your +base compact, and allowed him to be thrown out of the inn for not +paying his bill. The act was deficient in generosity and gallantry." + +"Then I suppose you would think it a fine thing for such a pauper to +marry a woman like that,--like that, I say?" and he jerked his head +toward Cecilia. + +"I consider a lord of Arrowood as good as the proprietor of a +knitting-mill any day, if you press me for an opinion," I replied +amiably. + +"And this from a chimney-sweep?" he sneered. + +"You flatter me, my dear sir. I've renounced soot and become a +gentleman adventurer merely to prevent a type that long illumined +popular fiction from becoming extinct. I advise you to fill the void +existing in the heavy-villain class; believe me, your talents would +carry you far. Study Dumas and forget the wool-market, and you will +lead a happier life. My second reason for declining to meet you at the +Arms at twelve to-morrow is merely that the hour is inconvenient. I +assume that you mean to urge luncheon upon me, and I never eat before +one. My doctor has warned me to avoid early luncheons if I would +preserve my figure, of which you may well believe me justly proud." + +"You're a coward, that's all there is to that. I dare you to come!" + +"Well, as I think of it I 'd rather be dared than invited. If I find +it quite convenient I shall drop in. But you need n't keep the waffles +hot for me. Good evening." + +It did not seem possible that I, the timid, uncombative and unathletic, +had thus cavalierly addressed a dignified gentleman in a white +waistcoat who was perfectly capable of knocking me down with a slap in +the face. Valor, I aver, is only another of the offsprings of +necessity. + + + + +XVI + +JACK O' LANTERN + +I hurried back to the trunk-room and had soon gained the roof. The +moon was harassed by flying clouds that obscured it fitfully, and a +keen wind swept the hills. I crept over the several levels of roof +thinking that any moment I should come upon Hezekiah; I searched a +second time, peering behind chimney-pots, and into dark angles; but to +my disappointment and chagrin my young lady of the single slipper was +nowhere in sight. I found, however, lying near the library chimney, a +trunk-tray that required no explanation. With this Hezekiah had +blocked the flue, and I smiled as I pictured her tip-toeing to reach +the chimney-crock, and dropping the tray across the top. How gleefully +she must have chuckled as she waited for the flue to fill and send the +smoke ebbing back into the library, to the discomfiture of her aunt and +sister and the suitors gathered about the hearth! The spirit of +mischief never whispered into a prettier ear a trick better calculated +to cause confusion. + +I had thought Hezekiah secure when I locked the trunk-room door, but I +had not counted upon the versatility and resourcefulness of that young +person. I dropped to the second roof-level and inspected the +down-spouts, but it was incredible that she had sought the earth by +this means. I swung myself to a third level, and after much groping +for my bearings, decided that an athletic girl of Hezekiah's +venturesome disposition might, if she set no great store by her neck, +clamber off the kitchen-roof by means of a tall maple whose branches +now raspingly called attention to their slight contact with the house. +It was here that the walls of Hopefield thrust themselves into the +shoulder of a rough rocky knoll, and it was perfectly clear now that +the chambers of the earlier house around which the mansion had been +built were neatly enfolded by the walls on the east side. + +As the moon cruised into a patch of clear sky something white fluttered +from a maple limb, and I bent and pulled it free. I took counsel of a +match behind the kitchen chimney, and found that it was a handkerchief +that had been knotted to the tip of the bough. No one but Hezekiah +would have thought of marking her trail in this fashion. I held it to +my face, and that faint perfume that had been a mystifying +accompaniment of the passing of the mansion ghost became nothing more +unreal than the orris in Hezekiah's handkerchief-case. The wind +whipped the bit of linen spitefully in my hands. I reasoned that if +Hezekiah the inexplicable had not meant for me to know the manner of +her exit she need not have left this plain hint behind; but the swaying +maple bough did not tempt me. I hurried back across the roof to secure +the trunk-tray, resolved to dispose of it, seek the open, and find the +errant Hezekiah if she still lingered in the neighborhood. + +I looked off across the windy landscape before descending, and as my +eyes ranged the dark I caught the glimmer of a light, as of a lantern +borne in the hand, in the meadow beyond the garden. It paused, and was +swung back and forth by its unseen bearer. It shed a curious yellow +light and not the white flame of the common lantern; and now it rose a +trifle higher and slowly resolved itself into a weird fantastic face. + +Three minutes later I was out of the house, using the backstairs to +avoid the company in the library, and had crossed the garden and +crawled through the hedge. As I rose to my feet a voice greeted me +cheerfully,-- + +"Well done, Chimney-Man! You were a little slow hitting the trail, but +you do pretty well, considering. How did you manage with Aunt Octavia +about that slipper? I had a narrow escape in the second-floor hall, +when I came out of Cecilia's room. I must have lowered a record +getting upstairs. And one shoe is n't a bit comfortable. Allow me to +relieve you!" + +"Here's your slipper. You ought to be ashamed of yourself." + +"For losing my slipper? I thought Cinderella had made that +respectable." + +She placed her hand on my shoulder, lifted her foot, and drew the pump +on with a single tug. + +"Well, what did Aunt Octavia say?" + +"Oh, she had thoughts too dark to express. You probably heard what we +said. It was she who found the slipper!" + +Hezekiah laughed. The wind caught up that laugh and whisked it away +jealously. + +"She found it and carried it to you, Chimney-Man, and I skipped just as +you began that beautiful story about finding it in Beacon Street. +Hurry and tell me how you got me out of it." + +"How did you know I would try to explain it? You did a perfectly +foolhardy thing in roaming the house that way, scaring Lord Arrowood +nearly to death, to say nothing of me. Why should I help you?" + +"Oh, you're a man and I was just a little girl who had lost her +slipper," she replied. "I was sure you would fix it up." + +"Well, I like your nerve, Hezekiah! I had to lie horribly to explain +the slipper, and Miss Octavia did n't swallow more than half my yarn." + +"Oh, well, if it was a good story, Aunt Octavia would n't mind. She'd +have minded, though, if you had n't tried to get me out of it. That's +the way with Aunt Octavia. I hope you made a romantic tale of it." + +"I can't say that it would place me among the great masters of fiction, +Hezekiah, but as lies go I think it had merit. And I 'll improve if I +stay here much longer." + +"Oh, you'll stay all right. Aunt Octavia has no intention of letting +you go. When she left the Asolando that afternoon she met you, she had +her plans all made for kidnapping you." + +"She did n't tell you so, did she?" + +"No; because I have n't seen her and I'm not supposed to see her, you +know, until Cecilia is all fixed." + +"Married?" + +"Um," replied Hezekiah. + +She drew from behind a boulder by which we stood a pumpkin of portable +size, which I surmised had been carved into the most hideous of jack o' +lanterns by the shrewd hand of Hezekiah. I took it from her with the +excuse of relieving her, but really to turn the light of the fearsome +thing more directly upon her. The wind blew her hair about her face; +hers was an elfish face to-night. With a pleasant tingling I met her +eyes. The light of a jack o' lantern is not of the earth earthy. Even +when you know perfectly well that it's only a candle stuck in a +pumpkin, you are not fully satisfied of its mundane character. In its +glow one becomes a conspirator, ready for treason, stratagems and +spoils. More concretely, in these moments a small archipelago of +freckles revealed itself about Hezekiah's nose and caused my heart to +palpitate strangely. Her sun-browned cheek was perilously near. I +hoped that she would bend forever over the lantern, so that I might not +lose the tiny shadows of her lashes, or, again, the laughter of her +brown eyes as she glanced up to ask my judgment as to the security of +the candle. She viewed her handiwork with feigned solicitude, the tip +of her tongue showing between her lips. Then the mirth in her bubbled +out, and she drew away and clapped her hands together like a child. + +"Come!" she cried. "If you are good and won't begin preaching about my +sins, I'll show you the funniest thing you ever saw in your life." + +In my joy of seeing her I was neglecting Cecilia's commission. Very +likely Hezekiah had forgotten all about her theft; hers, I reasoned, +was a nature that delighted in the nearest pleasure. I would follow +her jack o' lantern round the world for the chance of seeing the fun +brighten in her brown eyes, but I had made a promise to Cecilia and I +meant to fulfill it. + +She led me now across the meadow, over a stone wall, up a steep slope, +and by devious ways through a strip of woodland. I bore the jack o' +lantern,--she had bidden me do it, with some notion, I did not +question, of making me _particeps criminis_ in whatever mischief was +afoot. Dignified conduct in a man of twenty-eight, in his best evening +clothes, carrying a jack o' lantern over stone walls, under clumps of +briar, and through woods whose boughs clawed the night wildly! The +moon lost and found under the flying scud was in keeping with the +general irresponsibility of a world ruled by Hezekiah. + +She swung along ahead of me with the greatest ease and certainty. +Occasionally she flung some word back at me or whistled a few bars of a +tune, and when I slipped and nearly fell on a smooth slope she laughed +mockingly and bade me not lose the pumpkin. Once, when a boy, I stole +a watermelon and bore it a mile to the rendezvous of my pirate band +camped at a riverside; but carrying a pumpkin, even a hollow one, is +attended with manifold discomforts. It would help, I reflected, to +know just what I was lugging it for, but Hezekiah vouchsafed nothing. +When I threatened to drop the grinning gargoyle she laughed and told me +to trot along and not be silly; and a moment later she stopped and +demanded that I repeat fully the story I had told her aunt of the +finding of the slipper. + +"You are better than I thought you were, Chimney-Man!" she declared, +when I had concluded and added her aunt's comment. "You may be sure +that tickled Aunt Octavia. You can lie almost as well as an architect. +Aunt Octavia says architects are better liars than dress-makers." + +"It was my weakness for the truth that caused me to abandon +architecture. For heaven's sake, what are you up to?" + +I had kept little account of the direction of our flight, and I was +surprised that we had now reached the stile over which I had watched +the passing of the suitors on the afternoon of my meeting with Hezekiah +in the orchard. + +"This is the appointed place," she remarked, taking the pumpkin from me +and dropping down on the far side of the stile. + +"Hezekiah, I've trotted across most of Westchester County after you, +and my arm is paralyzed from carrying that pumpkin. I must know what +you're up to right here, or I'll go home. Besides, there's a mist +falling and you'll be soaked. What do you suppose your father thinks +of your absence at this time of night?" + +"Oh, he'll never forgive me for not letting him in on this. This is +the grandest thing I ever thought of. Sit on this step and gently +incline your ear toward the house. It's about time those gentlemen +were leaving Cecilia, and they'll be galloping for their inn in a +minute, and then"-- + +Hezekiah whistled the rest of it. + +While we waited, she bade me reset the candle and snuff the wick, which +I did of necessity with my fingers. Sitting on a stile with a pretty +girl is an experience that has been commended by the balladists, but +surely this felicity loses nothing where the night is fine. When you +get used to sitting in a drizzle in your dress-suit, while your +shirt-bosom assumes the consistency of a gum shoe and your collar glues +itself odiously to your neck, I dare say the ordeal may be borne +cheerfully, but my expressions of discomfort seemed only to amuse +Hezekiah. While we waited for I knew not what, I tried once or twice +to revert to the silver note-book, but without success. Hezekiah was a +mistress of the art of evasion with her tongue as well as her feet! + +"Wait till the evening performance is over and I'll talk about that. +'Sh! Quiet! Crawl over there out of the way, and when I say run, beat +it for the road." + +These last phrases were uttered in a whisper, her face close to my ear. +She gave me a little push, and I withdrew a few yards and waited. The +ground, I may say, was wet, and the drizzle had become a monotonous +autumn rain. + +The light of the lantern fell warmly upon Hezekiah's face as she held +its illumined countenance toward her, crouching on the stile-steps. I +heard now what her keener ear had caught earlier--the tramp of feet +along the path. The suitors were returning to the inn, and the voices +of one or two of them reached me. One--I thought it was Ormsby--was +execrating the weather. They were stepping along briskly, and my +remembrance of their retreat over this same stile through the amber +evening dusk was so vivid that I knew just how they would appear if a +light suddenly fell upon the path. + +[Illustration: The light of the lantern fell warmly upon Hezekiah's +face.] + +The nature of Hezekiah's undertaking suddenly dawned upon me. No one +but Hezekiah could ever have devised anything so preposterous, so +utterly lawless; but in spite of myself I waited in breathless +eagerness for the outcome. I could not have interfered now, if I had +wished to do so, without betraying her and involving myself in a +predicament that could not redound to my credit. + +Nearer and nearer came the patter of feet, and I heard, for I could not +see, the scraping of Hezekiah's slipper,--a wet little shoe by now!--as +she crept higher on our side of the stile. The first suitor groped +blindly for the steps, slipped on the wet plank, growled, and rose to +try again. That growl marked for me the leader of the van. Hartley +Wiggins, beyond a doubt, and in no good humor, I guessed! The others, +I judged, had trodden upon one another's heels at the moment Wiggins +stumbled. Thus let us imagine their approach--six gentlemen in top +hats headed for a stile on a chilly night of rain. + +It was at this strategic moment that Hezekiah pushed into the middle of +the stile-platform, its grinning face turned toward the advancing +suitors, the jack o' lantern her hand had fashioned. + +I marked its position by its faint glow an instant, but an instant +only. The world reeled for a moment before the sharp cry of a man in +fear. It cut the dark like a lash, and close upon it the second man +yelled, in a different key, but no less in accents of terror. The +first arrival had flung himself back, and so close upon him pressed the +others and so unexpected was the halt, that the nine men seemed to have +flung themselves together and to be struggling to escape from the +hideous thing that had interposed itself in their path. + +All was over in a moment. In the midst of the panic the lantern winked +out, and instantly Hezekiah was beside me. + +"Skip!" she commanded in a whisper; and catching my hand she led me off +at a brisk run. When we had gone a dozen rods she paused. We heard +voices from the stile, where the gentlemen were still engaged in +disentangling themselves; and then the planks boomed to their steps as +they crossed. They talked loudly among themselves discussing the cause +of their discomfiture. The lantern, I may add, had been knocked off +the stile by the thoughtful Hezekiah when she blew out the light. + +A moment more and all sounds of the suitors had died away. I stood +alone with Hezekiah in the midst of a meadow. She was breathing hard. +Suddenly she threw up her head, struck her hands together, and stamped +her foot upon the wet sod. I had waited for an outburst of laughter +now that we were safely out of the way, but I had reasoned without my +Hezekiah. Her mood was not the mood of mirth. + +"Well, Hezekiah," I said when I had got my wind, "you pulled off your +joke, but you don't seem to be enjoying it. What's the matter?" + +"Oh, that Hartley Wiggins! I might have known it!" + +"Known what?" I asked, pricking up my ears. + +"That he would be afraid of a pumpkin with a candle inside of it. Did +you hear that yell?" + +"Anybody would have yelled," I suggested. "I think I should have +dropped dead if you'd tried it on me." + +"No, you would n't," she asserted with unexpected flattery. + +"Don't be deceived, Hezekiah; I should have been scared to death if +that thing had popped up in front of me." + +"I don't believe it. I gave you a worse test than that. When I +switched off the lights and swung a feather duster down the stair-well +by a string and tickled your face you did n't make a noise like a +circus calliope scaring horses in Main Street, Podunk. But that +Wiggins man!" + +"He's a friend of mine and as brave as a lion. Out in Dakota the +sheriff used to get him to go in and quiet things when the boys were +shooting up the town." + +"Maybe; but he shied at a pumpkin and can be no true knight of mine. +Cecilia may have him. I always suspected that he was n't the real +thing. Why, he's even afraid of Aunt Octavia!" + +"Well, I rather think _we 'd_ better be!" + +I wanted to laugh, but I did not dare. I was not prepared for the +humor in which the panic of the suitors had left her. I did not quite +make out--and I am uncertain to this day--whether she had really wished +to test the courage of her sister's lovers or whether she had yielded +to a mischievous impulse in carrying the jack o' lantern to the stile +and thrusting it before those serious-minded gentlemen as they returned +from Hopefield. In any event Hartley Wiggins was out of it so far as +she, Hezekiah, was concerned. She trudged doggedly across the field +until we came presently to the highway. + +"My wheel's in the weeds somewhere; please pull it out for me. I'm +going home." + +"But not alone; I can't let you do that, Hezekiah." + +"Oh, cheer up!" she laughed, aroused by my lugubrious tone. "And +here's something you asked me for. Don't drop it. It's Cecilia's +memorandum-book. Give it back to her, and be sure no one sees it, and +you need n't look into it yourself. And we've got to have a talk about +it and Cecilia. Let me see. There's an iron bridge across an arm of +that little lake over there, and just beyond it a big fallen tree. +To-morrow at nine o'clock I'll be there. I've got to tell you +something, Chimney-Man, without really telling you. You'll be there, +won't you?" + +"I'll be there if I'm alive, Hezekiah." + +I had found the wheel and lighted the lamp. She scouted my suggestion +that I find a horse and drive her home. The lighting of the lamp +required time owing to the wind and rain; but when its thin ribbon of +light fell clearly upon the road, she seized the handle-bars and was +ready to mount without ado. + +She gave me her hand,--it was a cold, wet little hand, but there was a +good friendly grip in it. This was the first time I had touched +Hezekiah's hand, and I mention it because as I write I feel again the +pressure of her slim cold fingers. + +"Sorry you spoiled your clothes, but it was in a good cause. And you +'re a nice boy, Chimney-Man!" + +She shot away into the darkness, and the lamp's glow on the road +vanished in an instant; but before I lost her quite, her cheery whistle +blew back to me reassuringly. + + + + +XVII + +SEVEN GOLD REEDS + +I woke the next morning to the banging of Miss Octavia's fowling-piece. +In spite of the crowding incidents of the day and night I had slept +soundly, and save for a stiffness of the legs I was none the worse for +my wetting. The service of the house was perfect, and in response to +my ring a man appeared who declared himself competent to knock my dress +clothes into shape again. + +I should hardly have believed that so much history had been made in a +night, if it had not been for certain indubitable evidence: Cecilia's +silver note-book; Hezekiah's handkerchief, which I had forgotten to +return to her; and a patch of tallow grease from the jack o' lantern +that had attached itself firmly to my coat-cuff. + +Cecilia met me at the foot of the stairs, looking rather worn, I +thought. We were safe from interruption a moment longer, as her aunt's +gun was still booming, and I followed her to the library. + +"Please don't tell me you have failed," she cried tearfully. "That +little book means so much, so very much to us all!" + +"Here it is, Miss Hollister," I said, placing it in her hand without +parley. "I beg to assure you that I return it just as you saw it last. +Please satisfy yourself that it has not been tampered with in any way. +I have not opened it; and it has not left my hand since I recovered it." + +She had almost snatched it from me, and she turned slightly away and +ran hurriedly over the leaves. + +In her relief she laughed happily; and with one of her charming, +graceful gestures she gave me her hand. + +"I thank you, Mr. Ames; thank you! thank you! You have rendered me the +greatest service. And I hope you were able to do so without serious +inconvenience to yourself." + +"On the other hand it was the smallest matter, and instead of being a +trouble I found the greatest pleasure in recovering it." + +I stood with my hands thrust carelessly into my trousers pockets, +rocking slightly upon my heels to convey a sense of the unimportance of +my service. It was a manner I had cultivated to meet the surprise and +gratitude of my clients when I had brought a seemingly incurable flue +into a state of subjection. I think I may have appeared a little +bored, as though I had accomplished a feat that was rather unworthy of +my powers. A doctor who prescribes the wrong pill and finds to his +amazement that it cures the patient, might improve upon that manner, +but not greatly. + +"You naturally wonder, Miss Hollister, how I found this trinket so +readily. And in order that you may not suspect perfectly innocent +persons, I will tell you exactly how I came by it. It was your belief +that you had left it on your dressing-table. But as a memorandum-book +of any character pertains to a writing-desk rather than to a +dressing-table, my interest centred at once upon such writing-table as +you doubtless have in your room." + +"There is a writing-desk, in the corner by the window, but"-- + +"Ah, you are about to repeat your belief that you left the book on the +dressing-table and that it could not have moved to the desk. May I ask +whether you did not, just before you came down to dinner, scribble me a +line asking for an interview?" + +"Why, yes; I remember that perfectly." + +"You wrote in some haste, as indicated by the handwriting in your +message. It is possible that you wrote and destroyed one note, or +perhaps two, before you had expressed yourself exactly to your liking. +We are all of us, with any sort of feeling for style, prone to just +such rejections." + +"It is possible that I did," she replied, coloring slightly. "I was +extremely anxious to see you." + +"Very well, then; is it not possible that in throwing the rejected +correspondence cards into the waste-paper basket that stands beside +your desk,--there is such a basket, is there not?" + +"Yes," she replied breathlessly. + +"Is it not possible, then, that that little booklet, hardly heavier +than paper itself, may have been brushed off without your seeing it?" + +"It is possible; I must admit that it is possible; but"-- + +"It is on that 'but' that any theory implicating another hand must +break. What I have indicated is exactly what must have happened. To +the nice care that characterizes the house-keeping of this +establishment we must now turn. I find that when I go to my own room +after dinner it is always in perfect order,--pens restored to the rack +on my writing-table, brushes laid straight on the dressing-table, and +so on. The well-trained maid who cares for your room, seeing scraps of +paper in the basket by your desk, naturally carried it off. When I +accepted your commission last night I went directly to the cellar, +sought the bin into which waste paper is thrown, and found among old +envelopes and other litter this small trinket, which but for my +promptness might have been lost forever." + +"It does n't seem possible," she faltered. + +"Oh," I laughed easily, "possible or impossible, you could not on the +witness-stand swear that the book had not dropped into the waste-paper +basket precisely as I have described." + +"No, I suppose I couldn't," she answered slowly. + +My powers of mendacity were improving; but her relief at holding the +book again in her hand was so great that she would probably have +believed anything. + +"You see," she said, clasping the book tight, "this was given me for a +particular purpose and it contains a memorandum of greatest importance. +And I was in a panic when I found that it was gone, for my recollection +of certain items I had recorded here was confused, and there was no +possible way of setting myself straight. Now all is clear again. I +feel that I make poor acknowledgment of your service; but if, at any +time"-- + +"Pray think no more of it," I replied; and at this moment Miss +Hollister appeared and called us to breakfast. + +"If it is perfectly agreeable to you, Arnold, I will hear the story of +the finding of the ghost at four o'clock, or just before tea. I have +sent a telegram to Mr. Pepperton asking him to be present. He 's at +his country home in Redding and can very easily motor down. As no +motors are allowed on my premises he shall be met at the gate with a +trap." + +"You have sent for Pepperton!" I exclaimed. + +"That is exactly what I have done, and as he knows that I never accept +apologies under any circumstances, he will not disappoint me. In +addition to reprimanding him for not telling me of the secret passage +in this house, I have another matter that concerns you, Arnold, which I +wish to lay before him. The new cook that Providence sent to my +kitchen yesterday is the best we have had, Cecilia, and I beg that you +both indulge yourselves in a second helping of country scrambled eggs." + +Miss Octavia made no further allusion to the incidents of the night, +but went on turning over her mail. I have neglected to say that her +library contained a most remarkable array of books in praise of man's +fortitude and daring. I have learned later that these had been +assembled for her by a distinguished scholar, and many of them were +rare editions. A "Karlamagnus Saga" elbowed Malory and the "Reali di +Francia;" and Roland's horn challenged in all languages. She greatly +admired and had often visited the Chateau de Luynes, and had a +portfolio filled with water-color and pen-and-ink drawings of it. Such +books as Viollet-le-Duc's "Dictionnaire du Mobilier Français" I +constantly found lying spread open on the library table. She read +German and French readily, and declared her purpose to attack old +French that she might pursue certain obscure _chansons de geste_ which, +an Oxford professor had told her, were not susceptible of adequate +translation. Why should one read the news of the day when the news of +all time was available! Magazines and reviews she tolerated, but no +newspaper was as good as Froissart. She therefore read newspapers only +through a clipping bureau, which sent her items bearing upon her own +peculiar interests. By some error the story of a heavy embezzlement in +a city bank had that day crept in among a number of cuttings relating +to a ship that had been found somewhere off the Chilean coast with all +sails set and everything in perfect order, but with not a soul on +board. She expressed her bitterest contempt for men in responsible +positions who betrayed their trusts: highway robbery she thought a much +nobler crime, as the robber dignified his act by exposing himself to +personal danger. + +"In our day, Arnold," she said, placing her knife and fork carefully on +her plate, "in our day the ten commandments have lost their moral +significance and retain, I fear, only a very slight literary interest." + +She reminded Cecilia of an appointment to ride that morning; in the +early afternoon she was to install a new kennel-master; and otherwise +there was a full day ahead of her. It was a cheerful breakfast table. +A letter from my assistant confirming his telegraphed resignation did +not disturb me; Miss Octavia showed no further signs of abandoning her +quest of the golden coasts of youth, and Cecilia, having recovered her +notebook, faced the new day cheerfully. + +A little later I met Miss Hollister in the hall dressed for her ride. + +"Arnold, you may ride whenever you like. I may have forgotten to +mention it. What have you on hand this morning?" + +"An appointment with a lady," I replied. + +"If you are about to meet the owner of that Beacon Street slipper I +wish you good luck." + +She was drawing on her gauntlets, and turned away to hide a smile, I +thought; then she tapped me lightly with her riding-crop. + +"Cecilia's silver note-book was missing last night. She told me of her +loss with tears. She has it again this morning. Did you restore it?" + +"It was my good fortune to do so." + +"Then allow me to add my thanks to hers. You are an unusually +practical person, Arnold Ames, as well as the possessor of an +imagination that pleases me. You are becoming more and more essential +to me. Cecilia approaches, and I cannot say more at this time." + +When they had ridden out of the porte-cochère I set off across the +fields to keep my tryst with Hezekiah. The air had been washed sweet +and clean by the rain of the night, and sky was never bluer. I was +surprised at my own increasing detachment from the world. Nothing that +had happened before the Asolando mattered greatly; my meeting with Miss +Octavia Hollister had marked a climacteric from which all events must +now be reckoned. I had embarked with high hope in a profession to +which I had been drawn from youth, had failed utterly to find clients, +and had therefore taken up the doctoring of flues, a vocation whose +honors are few and dubious, and in which I felt it to be damning praise +that I was called the best in America. My days at Hopefield were the +happiest of my life. Few as they had been, they had changed my gray +bleak course into a path bright with promise. The world had been too +much with me, and I had escaped from it as completely as though I had +stepped upon another planet "where all is possible and all unknown." + +I reached the fallen tree that Hezekiah had appointed as our +trysting-place a little ahead of time, and indulged in pleasant +speculations while I waited. I was looking toward the hills expecting +her to come skimming along the highway on her bicycle, when a splash +caused me to turn to the lake. Dull of me not to have known that +Hezekiah would contrive a new entrance for a scene so charmingly set as +this! She had stolen upon me in a light skiff, and laughed to see how +her silent approach startled me. She dropped one oar and used the +other as a paddle, driving the boat with a sure hand through the reeds +into the bank. + + "'Tis morning and the days are long!" + + +Such was Hezekiah's greeting as she jumped ashore. She wore a dark +green skirt and coat, and a narrow four-in-hand cravat tied under a +flannel collar that clasped her throat snugly. A boy's felt hat, with +the brim pinned up in front, covered her head. + +"You seem none the worse for your wetting, Hezekiah. You must have +been soaked." + +"So must you, Chimneys, but you look as fit as I feel, and I never felt +better. Did they catch you crawling in last night?" + +"I did n't see a soul. You know I'm an old member of the family now. +Nobody was ever as nice to me as your Aunt Octavia." + +"How about Cecilia?" + +"Having found her silver note-book and given it back to her before +breakfast, I may say that our relations are altogether cordial." + +"Are you in love with her--yet?" asked Hezekiah, carelessly, tossing a +pebble into the lake. The "yet" was so timed that it splashed with the +pebble. + +"No; not--yet," I replied. + +"It will come," said Hezekiah a little ruefully, casting a pebble +farther upon the crinkled water. + +"You mean, Hezekiah, that men always fall in love with your sister." + +She nodded. + +"Well, she's a good deal of a girl." + +"Beautiful and no end cultivated. They all go crazy about her." + +"You mean Hartley Wiggins and his fellow-bandits at the Prescott Arms." + +"Yes; and lots of others." + +"And sometimes, Hezekiah, it has seemed to you that she got all the +admiration, and that you did n't get your share. So when her suitors +began a siege of the castle whose gates were locked against you, you +plugged the chimney with a trunk-tray, and played at being ghost and +otherwise sought to terrify your sister's lovers." + +"That's not nice, Chimneys. You mean that I'm jealous." + +"No. I don't mean that you are jealous now: I throw it into the remote +and irrevocable past. You were jealous. You don't care so much now. +And I hope you will care less!" + +"That is being impertinent. If you talk that way I shall call you Mr. +Ames and go home!" + +"You can't do that, Hezekiah." + +"I should like to know why not? If you say I 'm jealous of Cecilia +now, or that I ever was, I shall be very, very angry. For it's not +true." + +"No. You see things very differently now. You told me only last night +that Cecilia might have Hartley Wiggins. Assuming that she wants him! +And you and he have been good friends, have n't you? You had good +times on the other side. And while Cecilia was in town assisting +Providence in finding your aunt a cook, you went walking with him." + +"I did, I did!" mocked Hezekiah. "And why do you suppose I did?" + +"Because Wiggy's the best of fellows; a solid, substantial citizen, who +raises wheat to make bread out of." + +"And angel food and ginger cookies," added Hezekiah, feeling absently +in the pockets of her coat. "No, Chimneys, you 're a nice boy and you +don't yell like a wild man when a feather-duster hits you in the dark; +but there are some things you don't know yet." + +"I am here to grow wise at the feet of Hezekiah, Daughter of Kings. +Open the book of wisdom and teach me the alphabet, but don't be sad if +I balk at the grammar." + +"I never knew all the alphabet myself," said Hezekiah dolefully; then +she laughed abruptly. "I was bounced from two convents and no end of +Hudson River and Fifth Avenue education shops." + +"The brutality of that, Hezekiah, wrings my heart! Yet you are the +best teacher I ever had, and I thought I was educated when I met you. +But I had only been to school, which is different. Not until the first +time our eyes met, not until that supreme moment"-- + +"Mr. Ames," Hezekiah interrupted, in the happiest possible imitation of +Miss Octavia's manner, "if you think that, because I am a poor lone +girl who knows nothing of the great, wide world, I am a fair mark for +your cajolery, I assure you that you were never more mistaken in your +life!" + +"You ought n't to mimic your aunt. It is n't respectful; and besides +you have something to tell me. What's all this rumpus about Cecilia's +silver memorandum-book? Suppose we discuss that and get through with +it." + +We were sitting on the fallen tree, which lay partly in the lake, and +Hezekiah leaned over and broke off a number of reeds from the thicket +at the water's edge. Out of her pocket she drew a small penknife and +trimmed them uniformly. + +"You see," she began, biting her lip in the earnestness of her labor, +"I'm going to tell you something, and yet I 'm not going to tell you. +So far as you and I have gone you 've been tolerably satisfactory. If +I did n't think you had some wits in your head I should n't have +bothered with you at all. That's frank, is n't it?" + +"It certainly is. But I'm terribly fussed for fear I may not be equal +to this new ordeal." + +"If you fail we shall never meet again; that's all there is to that. +Now listen real hard. You know something about it already, but not the +main point. Aunt Octavia got father to consent to let her marry us +off--Cecilia and me. Cecilia, being older, came first. I was to keep +out of the way, and father and I were not to come to Aunt Octavia's new +house up there or meddle in any way. While we were abroad I was +treated as a little girl, and not as a grown-up at all. But you see I +'m really nineteen, and some of Cecilia's suitors were nice to me when +we were traveling. They were nice to me on Cecilia's account, you +know." + +"Of course. You're so hard to look at, it must have been painful to +them to be nice to you,--almost like taking poison! Go on, Hezekiah!" + +"You need n't interrupt me like that. Well, as part of the +understanding, and Cecilia agreed to it,--she thought she had to for +papa's sake,--she was to marry a particular man. Do you understand me, +a particular man? Aunt Octavia gave her the little note-book--she +bought it at a shop in Paris at the time Cecilia consented to the +plan--and she was to keep a sort of diary, so that she'd know when the +right man turned up. Now we will drop the note-book for a minute; only +I'll say that Cecilia was to keep the book all to herself and not show +it to any one, not even to Aunt Octavia, you know, until the right man +had asked Cecilia to marry him. Now who do you suppose, Mr. Ames, that +man is?" + +I watched her hands as they deftly cut and fashioned the dry reeds. +The air grew warm as the sun climbed to the zenith, and Hezekiah flung +aside her coat. The breeze caught the ends of her tie and snapped them +behind her. She was wholly absorbed in her task, and no boy could have +managed a pocket-knife better. The first reed she made a trifle longer +than her hand; the succeeding ones she trimmed to graduated lessening +lengths, till seven in all had been cut, and then she notched them. + +"Seven," she murmured, laying them neatly in order on her knee. "I +remember the right number by a poem I read the other day in an old +magazine." + +She reached down and plucked several long leaves of tough grass with +which she began to bind the reeds together, repeating,-- + + "Seven gold reeds grew tall and slim, + Close by the river's beaded brim. + + "Syrnix the naiad flitted past: + Pan, the goat-hoofed, followed fast. + + +"It will be easier," said Hezekiah, "if you hold the pipes while I tie +them." + +I found this propinquity wholly agreeable. It was pleasant to sit on a +log beside Hezekiah. It seemed no far cry to the storied Mediterranean +and Pan and dryads and naiads, as Hezekiah bound her reeds to the music +of couplets. There was no self-consciousness in her recitation; she +seemed to be telling me of something that she had seen herself an hour +ago. + + "He spread his arms to clasp her there + Just as she vanished into air. + + "And to his bosom warm and rough + Drew the gold reeds close enough. + + +"I don't remember the rest," she broke off. "But there! That's a pipe +fit for any shepherd." + +She put it to her lips and blew. I shall not pretend that the result +was melodious: she whistled much better without the reeds; but the +sight of her, sitting on the fallen tree beside the lake, beating time +with her foot, her head thrown back, her eyes half-closed in a mockery +of rapture at the shrill, wheezy uncertainties and ineptitudes she +evoked, thrilled me with new and wonderful longings. A heart, a spirit +like hers would never grow old! She was next of kin to all the +elusive, fugitive company of the elf-world. And on such a pipe as she +had strung together beside that pond, to this day Sicilian shepherd +boys whistle themselves into tune with Theocritus! + +[Illustration: She put it to her lips and blew.] + +"Take it," she said; "I can't tell you more than I have; and yet it is +all there, Chimneys. Read the riddle of the reeds if you can." + +I took the pipe and turned it over carefully in my hands; but I fear my +thoughts were rather of the hands that had fashioned it, the fingers +that had danced nimbly upon the stops. + +"There are seven reeds,--seven," she affirmed. + +She amused herself by skipping pebbles over the surface of the water +while I pondered. And I deliberated long, for one did not like to +blunder before Hezekiah! Then I jumped up and called to her. + +"One, two, three, four, five, six--seven! Not until the seventh man +offers himself shall Cecilia have a husband! Is that the answer?" + +For a moment Hezekiah watched the widening ripples made by the casting +of her last pebble; then she came back and resumed her seat. + +"You have done well, Chimney Man; and now I 'll not make you guess any +more, though I found it all out for myself. When Aunt Octavia gave +that memorandum-book to Cecilia, I knew it must have something to do +with the seventh man. You know I love all Aunt Octavia's nonsense +because it's the kind of foolishness I like myself, and the idea of a +pretty little note-book to write down proposals in was precisely the +sort of thing that would have occurred to my aunt. And it was in the +bargain, too, that she herself should not in any way interfere, or try +to influence the course of events: it should be the seventh suitor, +willy-nilly. And I suspect she's been a little scared too." + +"She has indeed! She was almost ready to throw the whole scheme over +last night. Your naughtiness had got on her nerves." + +"You missed the target that time: Aunt Octavia loves my naughtiness, +and I think she has really been afraid Sir Pumpkin Wiggins would catch +me. Now I did n't roam my aunt's house just for fun. I was doing my +best to keep Cecilia from getting into some scrape about that +seventh-suitor plan. I found out by chance how to get into Hopefield, +and about the hidden stairway and the old rooms tucked away there. +Papa really discovered that. A carpenter in Katonah who worked on the +house helped to build papa's bungalow, and he told us how that ruin +came to be there. That dyspepsia-cure man, who also immortalized +himself by inventing the ribless umbrella, was very superstitious. He +believed that if he built an entirely new house he would die. So he +had his architect build around and retain those two rooms and that +stairway of a house that had been on the ground almost since the +Revolution. Mr. Pepperton, the architect, humored him, but hid the +remains of the relic as far out of sight as possible." + +"Trust Pep for that! And he did it neatly!" + +"Yes; but it did n't save the umbrella-man; he died anyhow; or maybe +his pies killed him. Papa was so curious about it that he took me with +him one night just before Aunt Octavia moved here, and he and I found +the rooms and the stair and the secret spring by which, if you know +just where to poke the wall in the fourth-floor hall, you can disappear +as mysteriously as you please." + +"But how on earth did you darken the halls so easily? You nearly gave +me heart-disease doing that!" + +"Oh, that was a mere matter of a young lady in haste! When I found how +easily I could pass you on the stair it became a fascinating game, and +it was no end of fun to see just how long it would take you to catch +me." + +"I wish, Hezekiah, that you would stay caught!" + +"Be very, very careful, sir! We're talking business now. There's +another ordeal for you before you dare become sentimental." + +"Then hasten; let us be after it." + +"Things are in a serious predicament, I can tell you. I was frightened +when I looked into that note-book,--I did n't like to do that, but I +had to assist Providence a little. Five men have already got their +quietus." + +"Then why don't they clear out, and stop their nonsense?" + +"Oh, it's their pride, I suppose; and every man probably thinks that +when Cecilia has seen a little more of him in particular, in contrast +with the others, he will win her favor. They 're afraid of one +another, those men; that's the reason they've been herding together so +close since that first day you came. Mr. Wiggins was taking it for +granted that he was the whole thing--just like the man!--and those +others forced him to join in some sort of arrangement by which they +were to hang together. These calls in a bunch came from that, as +though any one of them would n't take advantage of the others if he saw +a chance! Some of this I got from Wiggy himself, the rest I just +guessed." + +"But you may not know that they sent a delegation after me into town, +to warn me off the grass." + +"That was Mr. Dick. He never saw me when Cecilia was around. And he +was terribly snippy sometimes, and supercilious; but I'm going to get +even with him. I've about underlined him for number six," she +concluded, with the manner of a queen who, about to give her chief +executioner his orders for the day, glances calmly over the list of +victims. + +"That's a good idea; Dick is insufferable; I hope you have n't counted +wrong." + +"As we were saying, about the note-book," she resumed, "the fifth man +has already been respectfully declined. The dates of the proposals are +written in the note-book; so I learned from the book that Mr. Ormsby, +Mr. Arbuthnot, and Mr. Gorse had proposed on the steamer. Professor +Hume, as you know, tried his luck at Hopefield; and Lord Arrowood must +have stopped Cecilia as she was riding to the station on my bicycle +yesterday morning. His goose is cooked." + +"His gooseberry pie was cooked, but I took it away from him. No pie +sacred to Hezekiah can be confiscated by an indigent lord so long as I +keep my present health and spirits. It's the close season for lords in +Westchester County; I potted the last one. By the way, he thought you +were a real ghost when you were playing tag with him in the dark." + +"He stopped to tell papa good-bye and spoke very highly of you; papa +and you are the only gentlemen he met in America. But now we come to +Mr. Wiggins." + +"We do; and why in the name of all that is beautiful and good has n't +he tried his luck?" + +"Because, knowing Cecilia's admiration for him," replied Hezekiah +demurely, "I have kept him so diverted that he has n't been able to +bring himself to the scratch." + +She examined the palm of her hand critically to allow me time to grasp +this. + +"You did n't want him to blunder in as the first, fourth, or sixth man?" + +Hezekiah gravely nodded her pretty head. + +"And while you were engaged in this sisterly labor, Cecilia has been +afraid that you were seriously interested in him!" + +"That is like Cecilia. She's fine, and would n't cause me trouble for +anything;" and there was no doubt of Hezekiah's sincerity. + +"But now that I see the light and understand all this, how can we make +sure that Wiggy will be on the spot at the right moment? While we sit +here, he may be the sixth man! There's my friend, the eminent thinker +from Nebraska; he's likely to kneel before Cecilia at any moment, and +Henderson and Shallenberger are not asleep." + +"That's all true; and you've got to fix it." + +"You're leaving the fate of Wiggins and your sister in my hands? +That's a heavy responsibility, Hezekiah. I might take care of Wiggy by +asking Cecilia to marry me, being careful to have him appear +johnny-on-the-spot when I had been duly declined." + +"Um, I should n't take any chances if I were you," she replied, +feigning to look at an imaginary bird in a tree-top; "for if you had +counted wrong and were really the seventh man, she would have to accept +you!" + +"Hezekiah!" + +"Oh, I really did n't mean what you thought I meant. We don't need to +discuss it any more. That's the ordeal I've arranged for you," she +answered, and set her lips sternly. + +"But, my dear Hezekiah, by what means can this be effected? I don't +dare tell him the combination he's playing against or sit on him until +his hour strikes." + +"Certainly not; you must n't tell him or anybody else. You know the +plan; but you're not supposed to; and nobody must know I've meddled. +Meanwhile, Cecilia must expose herself to proposals at all times. Aunt +Octavia's heart would be broken if she thought Providence had been +tampered with. She likes Wiggy well enough, except that his ancestors +were all Tories and he can't be a son of the Revolution." + +"Too bad; it was very careless of him not to do better about his +ancestors; but he can't change that now." + +"Well, you've behaved with considerable intelligence so far, and now +with your friend's fate in your hands you will need to use great +judgment and tact in all that follows. I wash my hands of the whole +business." + +She rose quickly and pointed to her coat. + +"Drop it into the boat for me, Chimneys. We meet in funny places, +don't we? Papa expects me for luncheon, and I must row back and get my +bicycle. You? No, you can't go along; you've got a lot of thinking to +do, and you'd better be doing it." + + + + +XVIII + +TROUBLE AT THE PRESCOTT ARMS + +A few minutes later, as I swung along the highway toward the Prescott +Arms, I saw Cecilia Hollister riding toward me at a lively gallop. She +crossed the bridge without checking her horse, and then, with a hurried +glance over her shoulder, she pointed with her crop to a by-way that +led deviously into a strip of forest and vanished. + +I hurried after her, and found her waiting for me in a quiet lane. She +had dismounted and seemed greatly disturbed as I addressed her. Her +horse, a superb Estabrook thoroughbred, had evidently been pushed hard. +Cecilia had taken off her hat, and was giving a touch to the wayward +strands of hair that had been shaken loose in her flight. The color +glowed in her dark cheeks, and her eyes were bright with excitement. + +"I hadn't expected to meet you; I thought you rode off with your aunt +toward Mt. Kisco." + +"We did; but on our way home Aunt Octavia stopped to call on a friend, +and as I did n't feel in a mood for visits this morning I rode on +alone." + +She spoke further of her aunt's friend, of whom I had never heard +before, to calm herself before touching upon the cause of her wild ride +or her wish to speak to me. She pinned on her hat and drew on her +riding-gloves while I helped to make conversation, and soon regained +her composure. The haste with which she had withdrawn into the wood, +and the imperative wave of her crop by which she had bidden me follow +her, indicated that something of importance had happened and that she +wished to confide in me. + +"I was walking my horse in the road beyond Bedford, just after I left +Aunt Octavia, when who should ride up beside me but Mr. Wiggins. He +had evidently been following me." + +She expected me to express surprise; and with the information that +Hezekiah had just imparted fresh in my mind I dare say she was not +disappointed in the effect of her words. I was thinking rapidly and +fearfully. If my friend had sought her in the highway and offered +himself in some fresh accession of ardor, he might even now be a +rejected and hopeless man; but I was unwilling to believe that this had +happened. + +"Hartley is fond of riding, and nothing could be more natural than for +him to have his horse sent out from town." + +"Oh, it's natural enough," she cried; "but I was greatly taken aback +when he rode up beside me." + +"An old friend joining you in the highway, on a bright October morning! +I can't for the life of me see anything surprising or alarming in that, +Miss Hollister." + +"But only yesterday, you remember I told you I had seen him walking +with my sister." + +"It's perfectly easy to talk to Hezekiah! It seems to me that that +only shows a friendly attitude toward all the family. Let us deal with +facts if I am to help you. I understand perfectly that Hartley Wiggins +wishes to marry you; and that being the case I see no reason why he +should n't be courteous to your sister. I 've always heard that it's +the proper thing to be polite to the sisters, cousins, and aunts of +one's prospective wife. I know of no more delightful occupation than +listening to Hezekiah. Just now, for an hour or so, I have been +enjoying her conversation myself. Nothing could be more refreshing or +stimulating. She is an unusual young woman, and most amazingly wise." + +"You have seen Hezekiah this morning!" she exclaimed. + +"I have indeed. I hope I may say that she and I are becoming good +friends. I am learning to understand her; though, believe me, I don't +speak boastingly. However, this morning we got on famously together. +But won't you continue and tell me what happened in the road when +Hartley rode up beside you?" + +"Oh, nothing happened; really nothing! Nothing could have happened, +for the excellent reason that I ran away from him. It was n't what he +did or said; it was the fear of what he might say!" + +"If it had been Mr. Dick who had joined you in exactly the same way in +the highway, you would not have minded in the least, Miss Hollister. +Is n't that the truth?" + +Her hand that had rested on the pommel of her saddle dropped to her +side, and she stood erect, her eyes wide with wonder. + +"What do you mean?" she gasped. + +"I mean exactly what I have said; that if it had been that strutting +young philosopher from the West you would--well, you would have allowed +him to say what was in his mind, no matter whether it had been his +latest thought on Kantianism, the weather, or his admiration for +yourself. Am I not right?" + +"I wonder, I wonder"--she faltered, drawing away, the better to observe +me. + +"You wonder how much I know! To relieve your mind without parleying +further, I will say to you that I know everything." + +"Then Aunt Octavia must have told you; and that seems incredible. It +was distinctly understood"-- + +"Your aunt told me nothing. Not by words did any one tell me." + +"Not by words?" she asked, eyeing me wonderingly and clearly fearing +that I might be playing some trick upon her. "Then can it be that +Hezekiah--but no! Hezekiah does n't know!" + +"Trust Hezekiah for not telling secrets," I answered evasively. "Give +me credit for some imagination. The air of Hopefield is stimulating, +and in the few days I have spent in your aunt's house I have learned +much that I never dreamed of before. I am not at all the person you +greeted with so much courtesy in the library when I arrived there, a +chimney-doctor and an ignorant person, a few afternoons ago,--called, +as I thought, to prescribe for flues that proved to be in admirable +condition, but really summoned by higher powers to assist the fates in +the proper and orderly performance of their duties to several members +of the house of Hollister,--yourself among them." + +"I don't understand it; you are wholly inexplicable." + +"I am the simplest and least guileful of beings, I assure you. Yet I +have done some things here not in the slightest way related to chimney +doctoring; and something else I expect to do for which I believe you +will thank me through all the years of your life." + +"Ah, if you really know, that is possible!" she sighed wearily. "I am +very tired of it all. I was very foolish ever to have agreed to Aunt +Octavia's plan. You have seen those men,--any one of them might, you +know"-- And she shrugged her shoulders impatiently. + +"Any one of them might be the seventh man! There, you see I do know! +And I mean to help you!" + +She was immensely relieved; there was no question of that. Gratitude +shone in her eyes; and then, as I marvelled at their beautiful dark +depths, fear suddenly possessed them. The change in her was startling. +Several motors had swept by in the outer road while we talked; they +were faintly visible through the trees; and just now we both heard a +horse and caught a fleeting glimpse of Hartley Wiggins, riding slowly +with bowed head toward the inn. Cecilia's horse flung up his head, but +she clapped her hands upon his nostrils and held them there to prevent +his whinnying until that figure of despair had passed out of hearing. + +I was smitten with sorrow for Hartley Wiggins. I could put myself in +his place and imagine his feelings as he rode like a defeated general +back to the inn, there to face the other suitors after the humiliating +experience which Cecilia Hollister had just described. In his +ignorance of the cause of her eagerness to escape from him, he no doubt +believed that he had all unconsciously made himself intolerable to her. +It was plain that that glimpse of him had touched Cecilia's pity; if I +had doubted the sincerity of her regard for him before, I spurned the +thought now. I was anxious to requicken hope in her,--an odd office +for me to assume when in my own affairs I had always yielded my sword +readily to the blue devils! Yet during my short stay at Hopefield I +had already found it possible to restore Miss Octavia's confidence in +her own chosen destiny, and in this delicate love-affair between +Cecilia Hollister and my best friend I proffered counsel and sympathy +with an assurance that astonished me. + +"I have told you enough, Miss Hollister, to make it clear that I am in +a position to help you. Believe me, I have no other business before me +but to complete the service I have undertaken." + +"But there is always"--she began, then ceased abruptly, and lifted her +head proudly--"there is always Mr. Wiggins's attitude toward my sister. +Not for anything in the world would I cause her the slightest +unhappiness. You must see that, now that you know her." + +I laughed aloud. Cecilia's concern for Hezekiah's happiness was so +absurd that I could not restrain my mirth for a moment. Displeasure +showed promptly in Cecilia's face. + +"I am sorry if you doubt my sincerity, Mr. Ames. I will put the matter +directly, to make sure I have not been misunderstood heretofore, and +say that if Hezekiah is interested in Hartley Wiggins and cares for him +in the least,--you know she is young and susceptible,--I shall take +care that he never sees me again." + +"Pardon me, but maybe you don't quite understand Hezekiah!" + +"Is it possible, then, that you do?" she inquired coldly. "I imagine +your opportunities for seeing her have not been numerous." + +"Well, it is n't so much a matter of seeing her, when you've read of +her all your life and dreamed about her. She's in every fairy story +that ever was written; she dances through the mythologies of all races. +Hers is the kingdom of the pure in heart. Her mind is like a beautiful +bright meadow by the sea, and her thoughts the dipping of swallow-wings +on lightly swaying grasses." + +Cecilia's manner changed, and she smiled. + +"You seem to have an attack of something; it looks serious. You have +n't known her long enough to find out so much!" + +"Longer than you would believe. She and I sat on the shore together +when Ulysses sailed by; we were among those present at the sack of +Troy; we heard Roland's ivory trumpet at Roncesvalles." + +"Such words from you amaze me. I didn't imagine there was so much +romance in chimneys." + +"They are full of it! Commend me to an open fire, with a flue that +knows its business, and a dream or two! I 've renounced my profession. +I shall hereafter offer myself as adviser to persons in need of +illusions; we 'd all be poets if we dared!" + +I helped her into the saddle, and she looked down at me with amusement +in her eyes. My praise of Hezekiah had pleased her, and I felt, as +when we journeyed together into town, her kindly, human qualities. The +perplexities and embarrassments resulting from her compact with her +aunt had doubtless checked the natural flow of her spirits. She talked +on buoyantly, though I was eager to be off, to avert the catastrophe +that only her flight had prevented and which Wiggins might at any +moment precipitate. She gathered up her reins. + +"You are not coming home for luncheon? Then I shall see you at four. +I hope the hiding-place of the ghost will prove interesting. Aunt +Octavia has built her hopes high, and I may add that she has expressed +the greatest admiration of you to me. On her ride this morning she +declared that great things are in store for you. I hope so, too, Mr. +Ames." + +She gave me her hand and rode away, and before I had reached the +highway she was across the bridge and galloping rapidly homeward. + +The inn was a mile distant, and I set off at a brisk pace, turning over +in my mind various projects for controlling the characters now upon the +stage in such manner that Wiggins should become the seventh man. +Cecilia could not always run away from him without violating the terms +of her aunt's stipulation; and it was unlikely that she would attempt +further to guide or thwart the pointing finger of fate. I relied +little upon any arrangement effected among the suitors to stand +together. Hume had already found a chance to speak. Lord Arrowood had +bitten the dust and turned his face homeward, and Wiggins had been near +the brink only that morning. It was unlikely that any of the active +candidates remaining would stumble upon the key to the situation, which +Hezekiah had given into my keeping. + +It was well on toward two o'clock when I approached the inn. Before +long the suitors would depart for their afternoon call at the Manor, +which was an established event of the day. Just as I was about to +enter the gate I was arrested by an imperious voice calling, and John +Stewart Dick came running toward me. He had evidently been expecting +me, and I paused, thinking him about to renew his attack upon me. To +my surprise he greeted me cordially, even offering his hand. + +"You thought you would come after all. Well, I'm glad you did. I've +decided that there should be peace between us." + +In stature he was the shortest of the suitors, but what he lacked in +height was compensated for by a tremendous dignity. A dark Napoleonic +lock lay across his forehead, and his clear-cut profile otherwise +suggested the Corsican, the resemblance being, I wickedly assumed, one +that the philosopher encouraged. + +"You have several times addressed me, Mr. Ames, in a spirit of +contumely which I have hesitated to punish by the chastisement you +deserve; but I am willing to let bygones be bygones." + +His changed tone put me on guard, but it was impossible for me to take +him seriously. In spite of the fact that he was a vigorous muscular +young fellow who could have threshed me without trouble, I could not +resist the impulse he always roused in me to address him in language +any self-respecting man would resent. + +"Chant the _dies iræ_ with considerable _allegro_, Plato, for I am +hungry and would fain pay for food at the adjacent inn." + +"I will overlook the coarseness of your humor," he rejoined haughtily. +"My own time is as valuable as yours. You have sneered at my +attainments as a philosopher; but I will pass that for the present. I +am disposed to treat you magnanimously. You have an excellent opinion +of yourself; you have come here as an intruder upon the rights of those +of us who followed Cecilia Hollister across Europe and home to America; +but in spite of this I waive my rights in your favor. I had intended +to offer myself to Miss Hollister this afternoon, with every hope of +success, but I yield to you. My only request is that you inform me at +once when you have learned her decision." + +He clapped on his cap and folded his arms, clearly satisfied with the +expressions of surprise to which my feelings betrayed me. Could it be +possible that he had guessed the truth, perhaps by deductive processes +of which I was ignorant? Whether he had reasoned from some remark +thrown out by Miss Octavia as to the influence of seven in the affairs +of life and her application of that fateful principle to the choice of +a husband for Cecilia, I could not guess, but assuming that he had +caught that clue, he might readily enough have managed the rest. +Having crossed on the steamer with the suitor host, a man of his +intelligence might readily enough have kept track of the vanquished. +In any case he had hit upon me as a likely victim, and on the plea of +generously waiting till I had tried my luck he hoped to thrust me +forward as the sixth suitor, and immediately thereafter project himself +as the inevitable seventh man. The whole situation was rendered +perilously complex by the knowledge that, unaided, he had possessed +himself of so much dangerous information. I must not, however, allow +him to see what I suspected. + +"My dear professor, there's an ancient warning against the Greeks +bearing gifts. You must give me time to inspect the horse." + +"Are you questioning my good faith?" + +"Be it far from me! I'm a good deal tickled though by your genial +assumption that if I offered myself to this lady I should be declined +with thanks. You have fretted yourself into a state of mind that bodes +ill for American philosophy." + +He was again belligerent. It may have occurred to him that I might +know as much as he, but at any rate he grinned; it was a saturnine grin +I did not like. + +"I'm starving to death at the door of an inn, and you must excuse me. +Have you seen Hartley Wiggins lately?" + +"I have, indeed! He's taken to lonely horseback rides; he's off +somewhere now. He has n't the stamina for a contest like this. One by +one the autumn leaves are falling," he added, with special intention, +"and I have given you your chance." + +"Thanks, light-bringing Socrates from the lands of the Ogalallas! For +so much courtesy I shall take pleasure in reading all your posthumous +works. Let us cease being absurd." + +He laid his hand on my arm and lowered his tone. + +"Don't be an ass. If you and I both know what's underneath all this +mystery we might come to an understanding." + +"I don't follow you. Please make a light, like a man about to have an +idea." + +"You mean that you don't understand?" He eyed me doubtfully, uncertain +whether I knew or not. + +"You have implied that I am incapable of understanding; suppose we let +it go at that." + +With this I left him and entered the low-raftered office--it was really +a pleasant lounging-room, unspoiled by the usual hotel-office +paraphernalia. Dick had followed close behind, and as I paused, +hearing voices raised angrily in the dining-room beyond, I turned to +him for an explanation. As the suitors had been the only guests of the +inn since their advent, having stipulated that the proprietor should +exclude other applicants for meals or lodging, I attributed the +commotion to strife in their own ranks. Dick nodded sullenly and bade +me keep on. + +"You 'd better take a look at those fellows. I 've quit them--quite +out of it; remember that." + +The dining-room door was slightly ajar, and I flung it open. + +Ormsby, Shallenberger, Henderson, Hume, Gorse, and Arbuthnot had been +engaged with cards at a round table in an alcove, but some dispute +having apparently risen, they stood in their places engaged in +acrimonious debate. As near as I could determine, some one of them--I +think it was Ormsby--wished to abandon the game, which had been +undertaken to determine in what order they should be permitted to pay +visits to Hopefield in future, the calls _en masse_ having grown +intolerable. They were so absorbed in their argument that they failed +to note my appearance, and I stood unobserved within the door. The +dialogue between the card-players was swift and hot. + +"It's no good, I tell you!" cried Ormsby. "There's no fairness in this +unless all take their chances together!" + +"You ought to have thought of that before we began. This was your +scheme, but because the cards are running against you, you want to +quit. I say we'll go on!" This from Henderson, who struck the table +sharply as he concluded. + +"You knew Wiggins and Dick were n't going in when we started, and you +are not likely to get them in now. Your anxiety to cut the rest of us +out by any means seems to have unsettled your mind," shouted Gorse. "I +say let's drop this and stand to our original agreement that no man +speak till the end of the fortnight." + +"After that whole scheme has been torn to pieces like paper! There's +been nothing fair in this business from the start! We ought to have +kept Arrowood here and held together. And we ought to have got rid of +that Ames fellow--he did n't belong in this at all; and instead of +protecting ourselves against outsiders we have sat here like a lot of +fools while he's been making himself agreeable there in the +house--right there in the house!" + +Ormsby's voice rose to a disagreeable squeak as he closed with this +indictment of me. Hume fidgeted uneasily, and met my eye so warily +that I wondered whether he suspected that I knew of his breach of faith +with the other suitors. Much dallying with Scandinavian literature had +not lightened his heart, and there was nothing in Ibsen to which he +could refer his present plight. Shallenberger seemed to be the only +one of the group who had not lost his senses. He was in the farther +corner of the alcove, out of sight from the door, but I heard him +distinctly as he addressed the other suitors with rising anger. + +"We're acting like cads, and cads of the most contemptible sort! I +only agreed to this game to satisfy Ormsby. The idea of our sitting +here to draw cards to determine the order in which we shall offer +ourselves to the noblest and most beautiful woman in the world would be +coarse and vulgar if it were not so ridiculous! The men who had their +chance on the steamer or after we came here--and I don't pretend to +know who they are--ought in decency to have left the field. We seem to +have forgotten that we pretend to be gentlemen; or, far less +pardonable, that we pay court to a lady. Damn you all! I refuse to +have anything more to do with you, and if you try to interfere with my +affairs in any way I'll smash your heads collectively or separately as +you prefer!" + +My interest in this colloquy had led me further into the room, and +hearing my step they all turned and faced me. Dick had continued at my +side, but the black looks they sent our way were intended, I thought, +rather for me. Shallenberger, having taken himself out of the tangle, +leaned against the wall and filled his pipe with unconcern. My +appearance roused Ormsby to a fresh outburst. + +"You're responsible! If you had n't forced yourself upon the ladies at +Hopefield there would n't have been any of this trouble!" + +"You're only an impostor anyhow. You went to the house to fix a +chimney, and seem to think you 're engaged to spend the rest of your +natural life there!" protested Henderson, twisting the ends of his +moustache. + +Then they dropped me and assailed Dick. + +"We'd like to know what you expect to gain by dropping out! You got +cold feet mighty sudden!" bellowed Ormsby. + +Gorse and Henderson paid similar tributes to the apostate, whose +melancholy grin only deepened. Shallenberger was pacing the floor +slowly and puffing his pipe. Hume and Arbuthnot growled occasionally, +but shared, I thought, Shallenberger's changed feeling. + +My silence had been effective up to this time, but I was afraid to risk +it longer. Dick, I imagined, had kept close to me for fear of missing +any part of the altercation he knew my appearance would provoke. The +more vociferous suitors had howled themselves hoarse and glared at me +while I considered the situation. Henderson rallied for a final shot. + +"A good horsewhipping is what you deserve," he cried, leveling his +finger at me. + +"Gentlemen," I began, not without inward quaking, "you have spoken loud +naughty words to me, and in reply I must say that your vocal efforts +suggest only the melodies of the braying jackass, and that your +manners, to speak mildly, are susceptible of considerable improvement." + +"You leave this neighborhood within an hour!" boomed Ormsby; and in his +efforts to free himself from his chair it fell backward with a crash +that echoed through the long room. + +"Then summon the coroner by telephone, for I shall not be taken alive," +I answered quietly, trying to recall my youthful delight in Porthos, +Athos, and Aramis. "I should dislike to change the mild color-scheme +of this pleasant dining-room, but as sure as you lay hands on me, these +walls will become a playground for any corpuscles you carry in your +loathsome persons." + +"Come along, let us put him out," Henderson was saying in an aside to +Ormsby. + +"You were playing a game here for a stake not yours for the winning," I +continued. "Now I suggest that you shuffle the pack,--you three, who +are so full of valor,--shuffle the pack, I say, and draw for the jack +of clubs. Whoever is the fortunate man I shall take pleasure in +pitching through yonder very charming casement." + +"Agreed!" cried Henderson, and the three flung themselves into their +chairs. + +The alacrity of their consent had unnerved me for a moment. +D'Artagnan, I was sure, would have fought them all, but I consoled +myself, as the cards rattled on the bare table, with the reflection +that, considering the fact that I had never in my life laid violent +hands on a fellow-being, I was conducting myself with admirable +assurance. My weight has always hung well within one hundred and +thirty, and physicians have told me that I was incapable of taking on +flesh or muscle. Any one of these men could easily toss me through the +window I had indicated as a means of their own exit. + +Shallenberger caught my eye and indicated with a slight jerk of the +head that I had better run before it was too late. The painstaking +care with which Henderson had fallen upon the cards was disquieting, to +put it mildly. Dick nudged me in the ribs and offered to hold my coat. + +"It will not be necessary," I replied carelessly. "Tender your +services to the other gentlemen." + +I felt the cold sweat gathering on my brow. The three had begun to +draw cards, and I heard them slap the bits of pasteboard smartly upon +the table as they lifted them from the deck and, finding the jack of +clubs still undrawn, waited the next turn. I had no idea that a pack +of cards would dissolve so readily by the drawing process, and my +memory ceased trying to recall the adventures of D'Artagnan and hovered +with ominous persistence about the mad don of La Mancha. I cannot say +now whether I stood my ground out of sheer physical inability to run or +from an accession of courage due to the remembrance of my success in +detecting the Hopefield ghost. In any case I affected coolness as I +waited, even throwing out my arms to "shoot" my cuffs once or twice, +and yawning. + +"Come, gentlemen, hurry: let us not waste time here," I exclaimed +impatiently. + +"If Ormsby turns up the card you're a dead man," Dick was muttering +gloomily. + +"They're all alike to me," I replied loudly. "Mr. Ormsby is very +beautiful; I shall hope not to disfigure him permanently;" but as I +spoke my tongue was a wobbly dry clapper in my mouth. + +I was bending over now, watching the three men pick up the cards, and +once, when I misread the jack of spades for the jack of clubs, a +shudder passed over me. They were down to the last card, and Ormsby's +hand was on it. I recall that a group of steins on a shelf over +Henderson's head seemed to be dancing wildly. Then I looked at the +floor to steady myself, and hope leaped within me, for there, by +Ormsby's foot,--a large and heavy one,--lay an upturned card, the jack +of clubs, whose lone symbol magnified itself enormously in my amazed +eyes. + +At this moment, I became conscious that something had occurred to +distract the attention of the other men, who were staring at some one +who had entered noiselessly. + +"Gentlemen, you seem immensely interested in the turn of those cards. +I am glad to have arrived at the critical moment. Mr. Ormsby, will you +kindly lift the remaining card from the table?" + +Miss Octavia stood beside me. She was dressed in a dark brown +riding-habit; the feather in her fedora hat emphasized her usual brisk +air. She swung her riding-crop lightly in her hand, and bent over the +table with the deepest interest. + +Ormsby turned up the card. It was the ten of diamonds. + +"Gentlemen," I cried, pointing to the card, "what trick is this? Can +it be possible that you have been trifling with me in a fashion for +which men have died the world over by sword and pistol!" + +"Kindly explain, Arnold, the nature of this difficulty," Miss Octavia +commanded. + +"Simply this, Miss Hollister, if I must answer; I had offered to fight +these three gentlemen in order. It was agreed that the man who drew +the jack of clubs from the pack with which they had been playing should +be my first victim. They have shuffled their own cards and have drawn +the whole pack and there is no jack of clubs in the pack! The only +possible explanation is one to which I hesitate to apply the obvious +plain Saxon terms." + +"It dropped out, that's all! You don't dare pretend that we threw out +the jack to avoid drawing it!" protested Ormsby, though I saw from the +glances the trio exchanged that they suspected one another. Ormsby and +Gorse bent down to look for the missing card, but before they found it +I stepped forward and drove my fist upon the table with all the power I +could put into the blow. + +"Stop!" I cried. "I gave you every opportunity to stand up and take a +trouncing, but I need hardly say that after this contemptible knavery I +refuse to soil my hands on you!" + +"Do you insinuate"--began Henderson, jumping to his feet. + +"Gentlemen," said Miss Hollister, lifting the riding-crop, "it is +perfectly clear to me that Mr. Ames has gone as far as any gentleman +need go in protecting his honor. I do not offer myself as an +arbitrator here, but I advise my young friend that nothing further is +required of him in this deplorable affair." + +With one sweep of her crop she brushed to the floor the three piles of +cards that lay on the table as they had been stacked when drawn. + +[Illustration: With one sweep of her crop she brushed to the floor the +three piles of cards.] + +"Arnold," she said, with indescribable dignity, "will you kindly attend +me to my horse?" + + + + +XIX + +THE GHOST OF ADONIRAM CALDWELL + +A stable-boy held Miss Octavia's horse at the inn-door. Her face, her +figure, her voice expressed outraged dignity as she tested the +saddle-girth. + +"You need never tell me what had happened to provoke your wrath, for +that is none of my affair; but I wish to say that your conduct and +bearing won my highest approval. They had undoubtedly hidden the jack +of clubs to avoid the drubbing you would have administered to the +unfortunate man who would have drawn that card if it had been in the +pack." + +"I was not in the slightest danger at any time, Miss Hollister," I +protested. "By one of those tricks of fate to which you and I are +becoming so accustomed, the card had fallen to the floor unnoticed. If +you had not arrived so opportunely the lost jack would have been +discovered, the cards reshuffled, and very likely Mr. Ormsby would have +been dusting the inn-floor with me at this very minute." + +"I refuse to believe any such thing," declared Miss Octavia, who had +mounted and continued speaking from the saddle. "Your perfect +confidence was admirable, and I shudder to think of the terrible +punishment you would have given them. I do not particularly dislike +Mr. Ormsby, though the possibility of Cecilia marrying him has troubled +me not a little as I have recalled the unromantic aspect of Utica as +seen from the car-windows; but it is much to your credit that you +defied them all and brought them to the fighting-point, and then, by a +stroke of cleverness it pleased me to witness, placed them +irretrievably in the wrong." + +If Miss Octavia wished to view my performances in this flattering light +it seemed unnecessary and unkind to object. Now that I was in the open +again with a whole skin I was not averse to the victor's crown; I would +even wear it tilted slightly over one ear. Birds have been killed by +shots that missed the real target; bunker sands are rich in gutta +percha and good intentions. I was a fraud, but a cheerful one. + +"It was only a pleasant incident of the day's work, Miss Hollister. +I'm going to engage a squire and take to the open road as soon as all +this is over." + +"As soon as all what is over!" she demanded, eyeing me keenly. + +"Oh, the work I've undertaken to do here. I flatter myself that I have +made some progress; but within twenty-four hours I dare say that we +shall have seen the end." + +"Your words are not wholly luminous, Arnold." + +"It is much better that it should be so. You have trusted me so far, +and I have no intention of failing you now. If I say that the crisis +is near at hand in a certain matter that interests you greatly, you +will understand that I am not striking ignorantly in the dark." + +"If you know what I suspect you know, Arnold Ames, you are even +shrewder than I thought you, and you had already taken a high place in +my regard. The curtains of the windows just behind you have shown +considerable agitation since we have been speaking, not due, I think, +to the wind, as there is no air stirring. Those gentlemen you have +just vanquished are timidly watching you. Your daring and prowess have +greatly alarmed them. You may be sure they will think twice before +provoking your wrath again." + +"I devoutly hope they will," I replied, glancing carelessly over my +shoulder, and catching a glimpse of Henderson as he drew hastily out of +sight. "But will you tell me just how you came to visit the inn at +this particular hour?" + +"Nothing could be simpler. I had luncheon at the house of a friend on +whom I called. Cecilia had left me to continue her ride alone, and on +my way home I thought I would ride by the Prescott Arms to see how the +guests were faring. You see,"--she paused and gave a twitch to her hat +to prolong my suspense,--"you see, I own the Prescott Arms!" + +With this she rode away, and not caring to risk a further meeting with +the angry suitors from whom Miss Octavia had rescued me by so narrow a +margin, I set off across the fields toward Hopefield. From the stile I +saw Miss Octavia in the highway half a mile distant, sending her horse +along at a spirited canter. I reached the house without further +adventures, was served with a cold luncheon in my room, and by the time +I had changed my clothes Miss Octavia sent me word that Pepperton had +arrived. + +Miss Octavia and the architect were conversing earnestly when I reached +the library; and from the abruptness with which they ceased on my +entrance I imagined that I had been the subject of their talk. +Pepperton is not only one of the finest architects America has +produced, but one of the jolliest of fellows. He grasped my hand +cordially and pointed to the fireplace. + +"So you've at last found one of my jobs to overhaul, have you! You +must n't let this get out on me, old man; it would shatter my +reputation!" + +"Please observe that the flue is drawing splendidly now," I answered. +"A ghost had been strolling up and down the chimney, but now that I +have found his lair he will not trouble Miss Hollister's fireplaces +again." + +"I have waited for your arrival, Mr. Pepperton, that we might have the +benefit of your knowledge of the house in following the trail of this +ghost which Arnold has discovered. But we must give Arnold credit for +effecting the discovery alone and unaided. I destroyed the plans I +obtained from your office so that Arnold might be fully tested as to +his capacity for managing the most difficult situations." + +When Miss Octavia first referred to me as Arnold, Pepperton raised his +brows a trifle; the second time he glanced at me laughingly. He seemed +greatly amused by Miss Octavia's seriousness, but her amiable attitude +toward me clearly puzzled him. + +"It takes a good man to uncover a thing I try to hide. I said nothing +to you, Miss Hollister, about the retention within the walls of this +house of parts of an old one that formerly occupied the site, for the +reason that I thought you might refuse to buy the estate. The +gentleman for whom I built Hopefield was superstitious, as many men of +advanced years are, as to the building of a new house, and as the site +he chose is one of the finest in the county he compelled me to +construct this house--which is the most satisfactory I have built--in +such manner enough of the old should be kept intact to soothe his +superstitious soul with the idea that he had merely altered an old +house, not built a new one. As it is the architect's business to yield +to such caprices I obeyed him strictly. So there are two rooms of an +old farmhouse hidden under the east wing, and it amused me, once I had +got into it, to preserve part of the old stairway, and connect the +retained chambers with the upper hall of this house. I had to patch +the original stair, which was only one flight, with discarded lumber +from the old house, but I flatter myself that I managed it neatly. I +even saved the old nails to avert the wrath of the evil spirits. When +the umbrella and dyspepsia-cure man died,--for he did die, as you +know,--I believed the secret had died with him, as he was very +sensitive about his superstitions. Most of the laborers on that part +of the job were brought from a long distance, and I supposed they never +really knew just what we were doing. I might have known, though, that +if a fellow as clever as Ames got to pecking at the house the trick +would be discovered. But the chimney, old man,--what on earth was the +matter with it?" + +"It will never happen again, and I promised the ghost never to tell how +it was done." + +"You were quite right in doing that, Arnold,--a ghost's secrets should +be sacred; but let us now proceed to the hidden chambers," said Miss +Hollister, rising without further ado. + +She summoned Cecilia, to whom we explained matters briefly, and at +Pepperton's suggestion the four of us went directly to the fourth +floor, so that Miss Octavia might see the whole contrivance in the most +effective manner possible. + +My awkward pen falters in the attempt to convey any idea of Miss +Octavia's delight in Pepperton's revelation; she kept repeating her +admiration of his genius, and her praise of my cleverness, which, to +protect Hezekiah, I was forced to accept meekly. When in broad +daylight Pepperton found and pressed the spring in the upper hall and +the hidden door opened, with a slowness that indicated a realization of +its own dramatic value, Miss Octavia cried out gleefully, like a child +that witnesses the manipulation of a new and wonderful toy. + +"To think, Cecilia, that I should never have known of this if that +chimney had not smoked!"--a remark that caused Pepperton to glance at +me curiously. He knew as well as I did that with ordinary care every +flue in that house would have drawn splendidly. "Beyond any question," +Miss Octavia kept asserting, "beneath the chambers of the old house +down there we shall find the bones of that British soldier who perished +here; or it is even possible that a chest of hidden treasure is +concealed beneath the floor. What do you yourself suspect, Mr. +Pepperton?" + +We were lighting candles preparatory to stepping down into the dark +stairway, and Pepperton was plainly hard put to keep from laughing. + +"I assure you, Miss Hollister, that I have told you all I know about +the rooms down there. I 'm not very strong in the ghost-faith; and our +friend the umbrella-man never dreamed of such a thing, I assure you, +not even after he had satisfied his fierce craving for pie." + +Miss Octavia followed Pepperton slowly, pausing frequently to hold her +candle close to the stair-walls, whose rough surfaces confirmed all +that Pepperton had said of the preservation of the old timbers. I had +brought a handful of candles, and when we had reached the dark rooms +beneath, I lighted these and set them up in the black corners of the +old rooms, in which, Miss Octavia remarked, not even the wall paper had +been disturbed. The exit into the coal-cellar, and concealed openings +left for ventilation which had escaped me before, were now pointed out +by the architect, who kept laughing at the huge joke of it all. + +Cecilia murmured her surprise repeatedly as we continued the +examination; nothing quite like this had ever happened in the world +before, but even as we walked through those hidden rooms my thoughts +reverted to the crisis so near at hand in her affairs. I had pledged +myself to her service, but I saw no way yet of assuring the proper +sequence of proposals. The ultimate seventh must be Wiggins; but how +could I manage the penultimate sixth! Cecilia's own apparent freedom +from care on this tour of inspection deepened my sense of +responsibility to all concerned. Dick might by now have persuaded some +one of the others at the inn to offer himself, thus closing the gap, +and I had determined that the Westerner should not outwit me. It was +some consolation to know that while Cecilia was in these lost rooms in +my company, she was safe from Dick's machinations. + +My thoughts were, however, given a new direction by Miss Octavia. She +had been scrutinizing the floor closely, asking us all to bring our +candles to bear upon it, that she might search thoroughly for any signs +of a trapdoor beneath which the bones of the British soldier might +repose. + +"You can't tell me," she averred in her own peculiar vein, "that a +house as old as this has been preserved merely to divert calamity from +a superstitious gentleman engaged in the manufacture of ribless +umbrellas and a dyspepsia cure." + +Miss Octavia Hollister was a woman to be humored; we all knew this; but +I realized with a pang that she was about to be disappointed. I had +expected her to forget the British soldier in the perfectly tangible +joy of secret springs and ghostly chambers; and if I had foreseen her +persistence in clinging to the tradition of the ill-fated Briton I +should have taken the trouble to hide a few bones under the flooring. +Miss Octavia had brought a stick from the coal-room, and was thumping +the floor with it even while Pepperton tried to discourage her further +investigations. We were all ranged about her with our candles, and +these, with the others I had thrust into the corners, lighted the room +well. + +"I'm afraid you've seen the whole of it, Miss Hollister," said +Pepperton. "The old house was built after the Revolution, I judge, but +your British soldier was probably left hanging to a tree and never +buried at all." + +"Mr. Pepperton," she replied, holding the candle so close to the +architect that he blinked, "it would be far from me to question your +knowledge of history, but I should not be at all surprised if the +builder of this old house had fought on the seas with John Paul Jones, +and had buried beneath these walls the very sea-chest that had been his +companion on many eventful voyages." + +Pepperton gasped at the absurdity of this, and then suppressed his +mirth with difficulty. Cecilia faintly expostulated; but I knew Miss +Octavia would not be dissuaded, and I thought it as well to facilitate +her search and be done with it. A sailor with rings in his ears and a +cutlass dangling at his side might have come home from the wars and +established himself on a farm in Westchester County and even buried his +sea-chest under the floor of his house, but in all likelihood he never +had. It was not my office, however, to advise Miss Octavia Hollister +in such matters. Pepperton had changed his tune and seemed anxious to +follow my lead. To him she was an eccentric old woman, whose wealth +alone gained her indulgence in such preposterous obsessions as this; +but my own feelings were those of regret that she must so quickly be +disillusioned. To me she had become an incarnation of the play-spirit +that never grows old, and there may have risen in me an honest belief +that what this unusual woman sought she would somehow find. Once or +twice when the uneven worn flooring had boomed hollowly under her stick +I had knelt promptly to examine the planks, and had thus disposed of +several false alarms. Pepperton feigned interest for a time, but was +becoming bored. Cecilia studied the quaint pattern of the wall paper, +which she said ought to be reproduced, as nothing in contemporaneous +designs equaled it. + +Miss Octavia had been over the floors of the two rooms twice, and was +about to desist. Her less frequent appeals to the rest of us for +confirmation of some suspected change in the responses to her thumping +indicated disappointment. She made her last stand in the corner of the +smaller room, and as we all stood holding our lights, we were conscious +that the dull monotonous thump suddenly changed its tone. We all +noticed it at the same instant, and exchanged glances of surprise. + +"Do you hear that, gentlemen?" + +She subdued her gratification in the rebuking glance she gave us. Calm +and unhurried, she rested a moment on her stick, with the candle's soft +glow about her, a smile ineffably sweet on her face. + +"The timbers may have rotted away underneath. We did n't raise these +floors," said Pepperton; but we both dropped to our knees and brought +all the candle-light to bear upon the flooring. Dust and mortar, +shaken loose in the destruction of the house, filled the cracks. +Pepperton, deeply absorbed, continued to sound the corner with his +knuckles. + +"It really looks as though these boards had been cut for some purpose," +he said, whipping out his knife. + +I ran to the kindling-room and found a hatchet, and when I returned he +had dug the dirt out of the edges of the floor-planks. Silence held us +all as I set to prying up the boards. + +"I beg of you to exercise the greatest care, gentlemen. If bones are +interred here we must do them no sacrilege," warned Miss Octavia. + +By this time we all, I think, began to believe that the flooring might +really have been cut in this corner of the old room to permit the +hiding of something. The room had grown hot, and Cecilia opened the +cellar-windows outside to admit air. The old planks clung stubbornly +their joists, but after I had loosened one, the others came up quickly +and the smell of dry earth filled the room. Pepperton had, at Miss +Octavia's direction, brought a chisel and crowbar from the tool-room in +the cellar, and he stood ready with these when I tore up the last +board, disclosing an oblong space about five feet long and slightly +over three feet wide. It was possible that this was the whole story, +but Pepperton began driving the bar vigorously into the close-packed +soil. As he loosened the earth I scooped it out, and we soon had +penetrated about six inches beneath the surface. + +We were all excited now. The edge of the bar struck repeatedly against +something that resisted sharply. It might have been a root, but when +Pepperton shifted the point of attack the same booming sound answered +to the prodding. Pepperton now thought it might be only an empty cask +or a box of no interest whatever; but Miss Octavia, hovering close with +a candle, encouraged us to go on, and was fertile in suggestions as to +the most expeditious manner of resurrecting whatever might be buried +there. We were pretty well satisfied from the soundings that the +hidden object was somewhat shorter and narrower than the hole itself. + +"Quite naturally so," observed Miss Octavia, "for a man who buries a +treasure has to allow himself room for getting at it." + +We worked on silently, Pepperton loosening the soil with the bar while +I shoveled it out. In half an hour we had revealed a long flat wooden +surface, which to our anxious imaginations was the lid of some sort of +box. + +"It's sound red cedar," pronounced Pepperton, examining the wood where +the tools had splintered it. + +"Of course it's cedar," replied Miss Octavia, bending down to it. "I +knew it would be cedar. It always is!" + +We paused to laugh at her confident tone, and Cecilia suggested that as +there was still a good deal to do before we could free the box, we +should send for some of the servants to complete the work. + +"I would n't take a thousand dollars for my chance at this," Pepperton +answered; and we fell to again. + +It must have been nearly six o'clock when we dragged out into that +candle-lighted chamber a stout, well-fashioned box. The earth clung to +its sides jealously, and it was bound with strips of brass that shone +brightly where the scraping of our tools had burnished it. We pried +off the heavy lock with a good deal of difficulty, and when it was free +Miss Octavia asserted her right to the treasure-trove with much +calmness. + +"I should never forgive myself if I allowed this opportunity to pass; +you must permit me to have the first look." + +"Certainly, Miss Hollister; if it had n't been for you this chest would +have remained hidden to the end of all time," Pepperton replied. + +We gathered close about her as she knelt beside the box. My hand shook +as I held my candle, and I think Miss Octavia was the only one in the +room who showed no nervousness. Cecilia sighed deeply several times, +and Pepperton mopped his face with his handkerchief. The lid did not +yield as readily as we had expected, and it was necessary to resort to +the hatchet and chisel again; but we were careful that it should be +Miss Octavia's hand that finally raised the lid. + +We all exclaimed in various keys as the light fell upon the open chest. +The musty odor of old garments greeted us at once. The box was well +filled, and its contents were neatly arranged. Miss Octavia first +lifted out the remnants of a military uniform that lay on top. + +[Illustration: Miss Octavia first lifted out the remnants of a military +uniform that lay on top.] + +"It's his ragged regimentals!" cried Cecilia, as we unfolded an +officer's coat of blue and buff, sadly decrepit and faded; "and he was +not a British soldier at all, but an American patriot." + +Time and service had dealt even more harshly with an American flag on +which the thirteen white stars floated dimly on the dull blue field. +It had been bound tightly about a packet of papers which Miss Octavia +asked Pepperton to examine. + +"These are commissions appointing a certain Adoniram Caldwell to +various positions in the Continental Army. Adoniram had the right +stuff in him; here he's discharged as a private to become an ensign; +rose from ensign to colonel, and seems to have been in most of the big +doings. 'For gallantry in the recent engagement at Stony Point, on +recommendation of General Anthony Wayne'--by Jove, that does rather +carry you back!" + +Half a dozen of these documents traced Adoniram Caldwell's career to +the end of the Revolution and his retirement from the military service +with the rank of colonel. A sealed letter attached to these +commissions next held our attention. The ends were dovetailed in the +old style before the day of envelopes, and evidently care had been +taken in folding and sealing it. The superscription, in a round bold +hand, without flourishes, read: "To Whom It May Concern." + +"I suppose it concerns us as much as anybody," remarked Miss Octavia. +"What do you say, gentlemen; shall we open it?" + +We all demanded breathlessly that she break the seal, and we were soon +bending over her with our lights. The ink had blurred and in spots +rust had obliterated the writing:-- + + +"I, Roger Hartley Wiggins, sometime known as Adoniram Caldwell"-- + + +"Hartley Wiggins!" we gasped; and I felt Cecilia's hand clasp my arm. + +Miss Octavia continued reading, and as she was obliged to pause often +and refer illegible lines to the rest of us, I have copied the +following from the letter itself, with only slight changes of +punctuation and spelling. + + +"I, Roger Hartley Wiggins, sometime known as Adoniram Caldwell, having +now resumed my proper name, and being about to marry, and having begun +the construction of a habitation for myself wherein to end my days, +truthfully set forth these matters: + +"My father, Hiram Wiggins of Rhode Island, having supported the +royalist cause in our late war for Independence, and angered by my +friendliness to the patriots, and he, with ... brothers and sister +having returned to England after the evacuation of Boston, I joined the +Continental troops under General Putnam on Long Island, in July, 1776, +serving in various commands thereafter, to the best of my ability, to +the end.... My father has now returned to Rhode Island, and has, I +learn, been making inquiries touching my whereabouts and condition, so +that I have every hope that we may become reconciled. Yet as my +services to the Country were against his wishes and caused so much +harshness and heartache, and being now come into a part of the country +where I am unknown, I am decided to resume my rightful name, that my +wife and children may bear it and in the hope that I may myself yet add +to it some honor.... + +"Nor shall my wife or any children that may be born to me, know from me +... (_badly blurred_.) Yet not caring to destroy my sword, which I +bore with some credit, nor these testimonials of respect and confidence +I received as Adoniram Caldwell at various times and from various +personages of renown, both civilians and in the military service, I +place them under my house now building, where I hope in God's care to +end my days in peace. I would in like case make like choice again." + + +Ten lines following this were wholly illegible, but just before the +date (June 17, 1789), and the signature, which was written large, was +this:-- + + +"God preserve these American states that they endure in unity and +concord forever!" + + +We had all been moved by the reading of this long-lost letter, and Miss +Octavia's voice had faltered several times. As I turned to Cecilia +once or twice during the recital of the dead patriot's message, I saw +tears brimming her eyes. + +"Mr. Wiggins once told me that his great-grandfather had lived +somewhere in Westchester County, but I fancy he had no idea that +Hopefield was the identical spot," remarked Miss Octavia. "It seems +incredible, and yet I dare say the hand of fate is in it." + +"Oh, it's so wonderful; so beyond belief!" cried Cecilia, reverently +folding the letter, which, I observed, she retained in her own hands. + +"It's wonderful," added Miss Octavia promptly, taking the sword, which +Pepperton had with difficulty drawn from its battered scabbard, "that +even a discerning woman like me could have been so mistaken. I recall +with humility that last Fourth of July, at Berlin, I reprimanded Mr. +Wiggins severely because his family had not been represented in the war +for American Independence. By the irony of circumstances it becomes my +duty to present to him the very sword that his admirable +great-grandfather bore in that momentous struggle. I shall, with his +permission, place a bronze tablet on the outer wall of this house to +preserve the patriot's memory." + +Several copies of New York newspapers, half a dozen French gold coins, +the miniature of a woman's face, which we assumed to be that of Roger +Wiggins's mother or sister, were briefly examined; then by Miss +Octavia's orders we carefully returned everything to the chest. +Several packets of letters we did not open. + +"Arnold," she said when we had closed the chest, "will you and Mr. +Pepperton kindly carry that box to my room? No servant's hand shall +touch it; and I shall myself give it to Mr. Wiggins at the earliest +opportunity." + +We had lost track of time in those hidden rooms, preserved by the whim +of one man that the secret of another might be discovered, and found +with surprise, after the chest had been carried to Miss Octavia's +apartments, that it was after seven o'clock. We had been in the hidden +rooms for more than three hours. + +"We shall have much to talk about to-night, and I fancy we are all a +good deal shaken. It's not often we receive a letter from a dead man, +so we shall admit no callers to-night unless, indeed, Mr. Wiggins +should chance to come," announced Miss Octavia. "The next time Hartley +Wiggins visits this house he shall come as a conquering hero." + +"I hope so," replied Cecilia brokenly. + +We were still at dinner when the cards of Dick and the other suitors I +had last seen at the Prescott Arms were brought in; but Wiggins made no +sign, and I wondered. + + + + +XX + +HEZEKIAH PARTITIONS THE KINGDOM + +The man who looked after my needs handed me a note the next morning +which added fresh hazards to Cecilia's already perilous plight. + +"Left with the gardener before six o'clock by a boy from the village. +Said it was most confidential, sir." + +I waited till he had left the room before opening it. A square white +envelope addressed to Arnold Ames, Esq., Hopefield Manor, told me +nothing, and the handwriting was inscrutable. It slanted slightly +upward; the small letters were half-printed and quaintly shaded. If a +woman's, she had scorned the rail-fence models of the boarding-schools; +if a man's--but I knew its gender well enough! The white note sheet +within was unadorned, and the same pen had traced compactly, within the +widest possible margins, the following:-- + + +GOOSEBERRY BUNGALOW, + Before Breakfast. + +DEAR CHIMNEYS:--Pep stopped here yesterday to see B.H. He and C. old +pals. Watch him. Where's Wig? H.H. + + +The initials were superfluous, and yet the sight of them pleased me +mightily. In her semi-printing she curved the pillars of the H's like +parentheses, so that they bore an amusing resemblance to four men +striding forward against a storm. The report of a chief of scouts +smuggled through the enemy's lines could not have improved on her +billet for succinctness, and the information conveyed was startling +enough. We had been dealing with a company of suitors outside the +barricade; now came warning of the presence of a strange knight within +the gates who greatly multiplied the perils of the situation. The +compact between the suitors at the inn was a thing of the past, and I +now expected them to exercise all the ingenuity of which desperate +lovers are capable in pressing their claims. The fact that both +Wiggins and Pepperton were old friends of mine did not make my task +easier. I not only felt it incumbent on me to prevent Dick, the holder +of the clue, from taking advantage of it, but knowing Cecilia's own +attitude of mind and heart toward Wiggins I wished to save Pepperton +the pain of rejection if it could be done. + +But what did Hezekiah mean by the question with which she ended her +note? If Wiggins, smarting under Cecilia's treatment of him the day +before, had quit the field, here was a pretty how-d 'ye-do f Miss +Octavia's refusal to countenance telephones made it necessary for me to +leave Hopefield to learn what had become of Wiggins, and I realized +that I must act promptly if I saved the day for him. His conduct first +and last had been spiritless, and I was out of patience with him. It +seemed impossible to formulate any plan amidst these multiplying +uncertainties. If Wiggins had decamped, Dick knew it and would lay his +plans accordingly. I felt that it was base ingratitude on Wiggins's +part to ask me to watch his interests while he went roaming +indifferently over the country. One or two consoling reflections +remained, however: Dick believed me to be a suitor for Cecilia's hand, +and this doubtless caused him considerable uneasiness; and he did not +know that Pepperton, whose acquaintance with Cecilia antedated the +European flight, had to be reckoned with. I wished Pepperton had kept +out of it. + +Breakfast that morning was interminably long. Miss Octavia was never +more thoroughly amusing, never more drolly inadvertent. She attacked +Pepperton for all the evils in American architecture, and in particular +took him to task for some house he had built at Newport which she +pronounced the most hideous pile of marble on American soil. From her +packet of newspaper-cuttings she drew a letter her brother Bassford had +written to the "Sun,"--the writing of letters to newspapers was, it +seemed, one of his weaknesses,--protesting against the quality of the +music ground from the New York hurdy-gurdies. The selections were +execrable; the fierce tempo at which the instruments were driven had +caused an alarming increase in insanity, in proof of which he adduced +statistics. He demanded municipal censorship, and volunteered to sit +on the proposed commission of critics without pay. + +"That is just like brother Bassford! When I begin speaking to him +again I shall point out the error of his ways. I always miss the +hurdy-gurdies when I 'm in the country, and I believe I shall buy one +and have it play me to sleep at night. The faster the tempo the +sweeter the slumber. I should certainly do so," she concluded, with +that indefinable smile that always left one wondering, "if it were not +that my new laundress is a graduate of the Sandusky-Ottumwa +Conservatory of Music, and I fear the toreador's song on wheels might +be painful to one of her taste and temperament." + +When we left the table at about half-past ten Miss Octavia insisted +that we must visit the kennels. A friend had just sent her a fine +Airedale, and she wished to make sure the kennel-master was treating +the dog properly. Later we were all to ride. + +I made haste to excuse myself, saying that personal matters required +attention. + +"Certainly, Arnold, you shall do as you like. Mr. Pepperton is a +difficult bird to catch, so we hope for you at luncheon, and of course +we expect you for dinner." + +Pepperton looked at me inquiringly. I judged that he had known Miss +Octavia a good many years; the tone of their intercourse was intimate; +and yet he plainly was at a loss to understand just how I came to be so +thoroughly established in her good graces. I confess that as I glance +back over these pages it looks odd to me! + +As I paced the hall waiting for a horse to be saddled, Pepperton led me +out on the terrace above the garden. + +"I'm bursting with a great secret, old man. I'm going to be married." + +"What!" + +"I'm going to be married." + +I grasped a chair to support myself. This was almost too much. Could +it be possible that Hezekiah had miscalculated the list of rejections +in the silver-bound book, or that Cecilia herself had been deceived? +Pepperton misread my agitation, and with a hearty laugh clapped me on +the shoulder. + +"Oh, I'm not intruding on your preserves, old man! Cecilia is the +second finest girl in the world, that's all. I'm engaged to Miss +Gaylord, of Stockbridge. I 'm telling a few old friends, in advance of +the formal announcement to be made next week at a dance the Gaylords +are giving." + +I crushed his hand in both my own, and seeing that he misconstrued the +fervor of my emotion I hastened to set myself right. + +"You're a lucky dog as usual, Pep. But you don't understand about +Cecilia Hollister. It's not I; I 'm not in the running at all; but +Hartley Wiggins is! I'm here trying to help him score." + +"What's this? You're here to represent Wiggy?" + +"Well, he did n't exactly send me here, but when I came I found that +Wiggy was n't playing the game with quite the necessary zipology. +There's more required than appears,--a little of the dash and snap of +the old adventures,--the ready tongue, the eager, thirsty sword!" + +Pepperton pursed his lips and looked me over carefully with a twinkle +in his eye. + +"You are contributing those elements! You are octaviaized, is that +it?" Pepperton laughed until the tears came. + +"I prefer hollisterized as the broader term. Brother Bassford has it +too, and there's always Hezekiah!" + +"Ah! Hezekiah the unpredictable! I knew there was a skirt fluttering +somewhere. I saw her yesterday; stopped to see Bassford, who's a good +old chap. Hezekiah of the teasing eyes was whitewashing the +chicken-coop, and Michael Angelo could n't have done it better." + +"Pep," I said, lowering my voice, "if you love me, keep close to +Cecilia all day. You're an engaged man and in practice. Give an +imitation of devotion. Keep her out of doors; keep male human beings +away from her. Don't fail me in this. I 've got to pull off the +greatest coup of my life to-day. There's a band of outlaws hanging +round here who will propose to Cecilia the first chance they get--and +they must NOT. Wig 's got to speak before night or lose out forever. +No; not a word of explanation; you've got to take my word for it." + +"I'll be the goat; go ahead, but build a fire under Wiggins; I can't +stay here forever." + +Pepperton's engagement smoothed out one wrinkle, and I felt sure that I +could trust him as an ally. The groom was holding my horse in the +porte-cochère, and I mounted and rode away to the Prescott Arms. + +I found Ormsby, Shallenberger, Arbuthnot, Henderson, Hume, and Gorse +glumly sitting in a semicircle before the hall fireplace. Deepest +gloom pervaded the inn. I have rarely seen melancholy so darkly +stamped upon the human countenance. They turned indifferently and +glared as they recognized me. Shallenberger alone rose and greeted me. + +"I hope there is no bad news," he said chokingly. + +"Bad news?" + +"I mean Miss Hollister--Miss Cecilia. We were all deeply grieved last +night to hear of her sudden illness; there's always something so +terrible in the very name of diphtheria." + +My wits had been so sharpened by my late adventures that I readily +accounted for these false tidings. Dick was absent; Dick alone would +have been equal to this diabolical plot for keeping his rival suitors +away from Hopefield. The despair in those faces taxed my gravity +severely. + +"It is extremely sad, but the first diagnosis was erroneous," I +answered. "I think it more likely to prove to be chicken-pox when the +truth is known." + +"Not diphtheria?" + +"No immediate danger of diphtheria, I assure you," I replied; "though +of course, with winter coming on and all that, one must be prepared for +the worst." + +While he repeated this to the others, I sought the clerk, who promptly +handed me a note which Wiggins had left late the previous afternoon, to +be delivered in case I called. He had gone to spend a day or two with +Orton, the playwright, who was at his country house, in the hills +beyond Mt. Kisco, rehearsing a new piece, in which a friend of +Hartley's was to star. I gained the telephone-booth in one jump, and +in five minutes I was bawling wildly into Orton's ear. I had known him +well in the Hare and Tortoise, and he answered my demand for Wiggins +with the heart-breaking news that Hartley had ridden off with some +other guests in the house--Orton did n't know where. + +"I threw them out; I've got to rewrite my third act; I don't care +whether they ever come back," boomed Orton's voice. + +"If you don't send Wiggins back to me at Hopefield as fast as he can +get there, my third act is ruined." + +"What?" + +"Tell Wiggins to come back on the run; tell him the world's coming to +an end any minute." + +"I'll be glad to get rid of him," snapped Orton, in the harried tone of +a man whose third act has wilted in rehearsal. + +As I came perspiring out of the telephone-booth I found the suitors +engaged in eager but subdued debate by the hearth. They could hardly +have heard my bleatings over the telephone, but they were greatly +concerned about something. Shallenberger, who was apparently the only +one willing to approach me, followed me to the veranda. + +"Those fellows in there don't understand this. Dick told us all last +night, after we had called at the house and been refused admittance, +that Miss Cecilia was ill with diphtheria. I remember that it was Dick +who rang the bell and gave our cards to the footman. It was quite +singular, you know, our being turned away, unless something had been +wrong." + +I bowed gravely. They had been turned away for the very simple reason +that, after unearthing Adoniram Caldwell's effects in the secret rooms +of her house, Miss Octavia had not cared to be troubled with suitors. +The haughty Nebraskan had drawn upon his imagination for the rest. + +"And I understood you to say a moment ago that Miss Hollister's malady +is not diphtheria, but chicken-pox?" Shallenberger persisted with +almost laughable trepidation. "These gentlemen, I regret to say, go so +far as to doubt your word." + +"That, Mr. Shallenberger, is their privilege. But it seems to me that +when I merely tried to mitigate the terrible news imparted by Dick, you +are rank ingrates for questioning my far less doubtful story. Anything +between you gentlemen and Mr. Dick is, of course, none of my affair, +for whether considered as a set, group or bunch I am done with the +whole lot of you. Farewell!" + +I decided as I rode away that nothing was to be gained by going in +search of Wiggins. Orton had purposely made his house difficult of +access, and the roads in that neighborhood are many and devious. Orton +had banished his guests that he might tinker his play in peace, and +knowing his temper, I was sure that Wiggins and the rest of them would +keep out of his way till the pangs of hunger drove them back. + +I had ridden half a mile toward Hopefield, when I espied a woman riding +rapidly toward me, and as she drew nearer I identified her as Hezekiah, +mounted on a horse I recognized as one of the best in Miss Octavia's +stables. Hezekiah rode astride, as a woman should, her bicycle skirt +serving well as a habit. She rode as a boy rides who loves freedom and +quickened pulses and the rush of wind across his face. She was +hatless, for which the sun and I were both grateful. The big bow at +the back of her head turned the dial back to sixteen. + +[Illustration: I espied a woman riding rapidly toward me.] + +She drew rein and fished what seemed to be salted almonds from her +sweater pocket. She filliped one of these into the air, and caught it +in her mouth with a lazy toss of the head that showed the firm contour +of her lovely throat. I had never seen her more self-possessed. + +"Do you care much for this horse?" she asked, carelessly. + +"It's a good horse; I fancy Miss Octavia thinks so herself. There are +places, Hezekiah, where they hang people for horse-stealing." + +"Thought I might need one to-day, so I borrowed him,--through the back +way to the old red barn. The coachman is an ancient chum, and Aunt +Octavia would never mind even if she knew. And she will know all +right! Anyhow, my rear tire had been patched once too often, and there +is a satisfaction in a horse! Where's our sensitive and impressionable +Wiggy? Saw him riding over toward Kisco yesterday P.M. with chin on +his chest,--dreadful riding form." + +"Wiggins is at Orton's,--the playwright's, you know. I've telephoned +him to hustle back, but he's out of our reach somewhere. I could n't +speak to him direct; had to leave a message for him." + +"Just like Wiggy to die on the last lap. What did you make out of +brother Pepperton?" + +"Your note scared me,--thanks so much for your note,--but he's all +right. Engaged to another girl." + +"Ah," she sighed, "it's comforting that Cecilia could n't keep them all +going all the time." + +We rode along together, our horses in a walk, and I told her everything +I knew of the condition of affairs, including a true account of my +experiences at the inn the day before and of the finding of the old +chest belonging to Wiggins's great-grandfather,--her brown eyes opened +wide at this,--concluding with the diphtheria stratagem and Dick's +menace to Cecilia's happiness. + +"He's really a bright little boy. Coming home on the steamer he gave +me a post-graduate course in pragmatism that I've found helpful in +keeping house for papa. It's too bad we have to lay a trap for Mr. +Dick." + +"Is it? Just how are we to manage that, Hezekiah?" + +"Oh, that will be easy enough. He's pretty desperate, and since the +compact between the suitors has gone to pieces he knows he will have to +show his hand pretty soon. He thinks you are wild about Cecilia. He +lays great stress on his thinking powers, and he probably argues that +you are bound to pop pretty soon. It's just as well he thinks so, but +we must finish this up to-day; I'll be a nervous wreck if we don't +close the books to-night. There's your friend Dick now." + +She indicated a high point in the main road, where it crossed the ridge +from which she had shown me--it seemed, oh, very long ago!--the +procession of suitors crossing the stile. Dick, mounted, was gazing +off across the fields toward Hopefield. Man and horse were so distant +as to create the illusion of an equestrian statue on a high pedestal. + +"Napoleon before Waterloo," I suggested. + +"He does look like Napoleon, doesn't he?" she laughed. "He's a bit +fussed to-day. He knows that Wiggy 's not at the inn, and that you are +up to something, and to little Mr. Dick the architect probably looks +like one of those mysterious knights you read about, who suddenly +appears at the tournament all canned in an ice-cream freezer, with a +tin pail over his head. Mr. Pepperton's presence no doubt worries him, +as I don't think they ever met. Cecilia and Mr. Pepperton are +riding--I dodged them just before I struck you, walking their horses in +the most loverlike fashion in a lane over yonder; but if Mr. Pepperton +is really engaged it's all right, though if I were the other girl I +think I'd be anxious." + +"Pep's playing the game, that's all. What are you going to do now?" + +She glanced at the sun; I fancy that it was with such a scanning of the +heavens that her sisters a thousand years before had noted the time. + +"This is my pie-day. There's undoubtedly a gooseberry-pie waiting for +me at the bungalow, and papa will expect me for luncheon. I 'd ask you +to come too, only you 'll have all you can do to keep Mr. Dick from +persuading somebody to be the sixth man, so he can slip in as number +seven. If we get through to-day all right, you may come for luncheon +to-morrow, maybe. Papa told me he liked you; he said you were very +decent that night you met him on the roof of Aunt Octavia's house." + +"My compliments to your father. I hope to be able to persuade him to +extend his paternal arm to include me. Aunt Octavia must be my aunt, +too!" + +"Really!" cried Hezekiah, with indescribable mockery; and she wheeled +her horse and was gone like the wind. + +Luncheon at Hopefield passed without incident; and afterward Cecilia +retired to help her aunt with her correspondence, while Pepperton and I +lounged about the house and smoked. I told him of my ineffectual +efforts to reach Wiggins, and he volunteered to find a motor and search +for him; but I pointed out the futility of this, and renewed my appeal +that he stay on guard at Hopefield. + +At about three o'clock Cecilia reappeared. Her color was high and her +eyes were unusually brilliant. I knew that she fully realized that the +crisis was near, but she asked no questions and her manner reassured me +of her confidence. We idled on the stone terrace above the +frost-smitten garden, which in its ruin still satisfied the eye with +color. I had purposely drawn some chairs to a corner well screened by +vines, so that I could note the approach of any visitors who came cross +country by way of the stile. + +We were hardly seated before Dick entered the garden, followed +immediately by the six other suitors I had last seen at the inn. They +ranged themselves on a stone bench facing the house at the end of one +of the paths. They wore sack coats and hats in a variety of styles, so +that they did not present quite the bizarre effect produced by their +frock coats and silk tiles. They surveyed the house sadly, bowed their +heads upon their sticks, and seemed to have come to stay. The siege, +then, had become a practical matter! + +"Why don't the gentlemen come in?" asked Cecilia, peering through the +vines. + +"Hush! There's a rumor that you are terribly ill; they've come merely +to pay their tribute of respect by waiting in the garden. You had +better go quietly into the house. The shock of seeing you in your +usual health might be too much for them." + +"But I can't! I must be accessible at all times," she cried, looking +helplessly from me to Pepperton, who was all at sea for an explanation. +"If that impression is abroad, I shall appear at once." + +"Then you and Pepperton must patrol the terrace here; you are lovers +for all I know. Ignore them utterly in your absorption with one +another. If any one approaches you, Pepperton, ask Miss Hollister to +marry you." + +"Me!" gasped Pepperton. + +"No; it can't be done that way," Cecilia interposed. "Mr. Pepperton +has told me of his engagement. I can't be party to a fraud, a trick. +I can't countenance it at all. It would ruin everything!" + +"Then stay right here; pace back and forth, and I'll manage the rest. +I don't for the life of me know how, but I'll do it." + +As Cecilia and Pepperton stepped from behind the screen of vines, the +men on the benches lifted their heads; then I heard murmurs of +amazement and chagrin, and caught a fleeting glimpse of Dick tearing +through the hedge with his late companions tumbling after in fierce +pursuit. + +I ran to the stable and found a horse, feeling that I must be in a +position to move rapidly if I saw Wiggins approaching. If Dick eluded +his wrathful pursuers he would be on the lookout somewhere, awaiting +his own time, and if he saw Wiggins rushing madly for the house, he +might yet circumvent us. + +I satisfied myself that Cecilia and Pepperton were still plainly +visible from the garden, and I knew that for the time she was safe. I +gained the high point in the road from which Hezekiah and I had +observed Dick on guard at noon, and waited. Remembering the fine +figure the philosopher had made against the sky, I dismounted and +rested by a stone wall where I could watch with less risk of being seen +from a distance. + +I at once saw matters that interested me immensely. Dick had thrown +off the other suitors, and was rapidly crossing the fields toward +Hopefield. When I caught sight of him, he was just leaving the orchard +where Hezekiah and I had held our memorable interview. A long stretch +of rough pasture lay before him, and he settled down to a quick trot. +He took several fences without lessening his gait, crossed the stile +like a flash a little later, and was out of sight. + +As I turned to my horse I heard the swift patter of hoofs, and saw a +man and woman galloping furiously toward me. They were rapidly nearing +the ridge, and their horses were springing over the firm white road in +prodigious leaps. Wiggins had got my message; Hezekiah had met him in +the road and was urging him on! Here indeed was a situation to stir +the heart, and the blood sang in my ears as I watched them. I waved my +arm as they checked their horses for the long climb. The riders had +lost their hats in their mad race, and Wiggins's horse was nearly done +for. As they came still nearer, I saw that Wiggins had taken fire at +last. + +"Orton said some one was killed,--who--what--who"-- + +"I just picked him up five minutes ago; he doesn't know anything," said +Hezekiah; "and you dare n't tell him--remember the rules! What's +doing?" she inquired coolly. + +She bade Wiggins exchange horses with her, and while he was readjusting +the saddle-girths I explained to Hezekiah the situation at Hopefield +and told her of Dick's scamper across the fields. + +"There's no use fooling with this thing any more. I'll take Wiggy to +the house and lock him up until I 've been numbered six,--it's safest." + +"Not much it isn't. I don't intend that Cecilia shall have the +pleasure of refusing you." + +"I'd like to know why not. It's only to fill the gap." + +"Oh!" said Hezekiah, "that would be an embarrassment to me all the rest +of my life. Listen carefully. Take Wiggy in by the back way, and give +him a picture-book to look at. Leave Cecilia alone on the terrace when +you're all ready, and see what happens. If Dick's on his way to the +house he's going to do something, and he must feel the edge of my +displeasure. I owe him a few on general principles." + +"What does all this mean? You say there 's nothing wrong at the +house?" began Wiggins as we left Hezekiah and started toward Hopefield. + +"Nothing whatever the matter; everything perfectly all right; but +you've got to keep mum now and do what I tell you. I've worked hard +for you, old man, and when it's all over I'm going to send you a bill +for professional services. Come!" + +I urged my horse to his utmost, and Wiggins rode steadily beside me. +The fright Orton had given him had done my friend good, and I felt that +I was dealing with a live man at last. Our speed did not permit +conversation, but feeling that Wiggins was entitled to some further +assurance, I waited until we were climbing our last hill to add a word. + +"I'll tell you all about this after we have a good-night cigar +to-night. You know I told you I was going to help, and if nothing goes +wrong and Hezekiah does n't fail, you will see the world with new eyes +before you sleep." + +We rode direct to the stable, and I took Wiggins to my room by the back +stairs and bade him help himself to my raiment. He was perfectly +tractable, and I was glad to see that he trusted implicitly to my +guidance. + +I met Miss Octavia in the lower hall. She was just in from the +kennels. Her new Airedale was a perfect specimen of the breed, she +declared, and she announced her intention of exhibiting him at all the +reputable bench shows in America. + +"I hope, Arnold, that you have not been without entertainment to-day." + +"Miss Hollister, the three musketeers were fat monks asleep under the +sunny wall of a monastery compared with me!" + +"I am glad you are not bored. By the way, if you should by any chance +see Hezekiah, you will kindly intimate to her that if she returns that +Estabrook mare she borrowed this morning in reasonably good condition, +I will overlook her indiscretion in taking it from the stable without +permission." + +She did not wait for a reply, but continued on to her room, and I went +direct to the terrace. Cecilia and Pepperton were just going into the +house to look up a book or piece of music which they had been +discussing. Cecilia was making herself interesting, as she so well +knew how to do, and she seemed in no wise anxious. + +"We had forgotten tea," she said. "Aunt Octavia has just ordered it." + +"She and Mr. Pepperton may have their tea. I believe the air outside +will do you good for a little longer,--so if you don't mind, Pepperton, +Miss Hollister will resume her promenade alone." + +Pep has told me since that he thought me quite mad that afternoon. I +bade Cecilia patrol the long terrace slowly. She turned up the collar +of the covert coat and obeyed, laughing a little nervously but asking +no questions. The scene could not have been more charmingly set. The +great house loomed darkly behind her; beneath lay the garden, over +which the dusk was stealing goldenly. + +She paused suddenly as I watched from the window, and I stepped out to +see what had attracted her attention. There into the garden from its +farther entrance filed the six suitors who had previously come to sit +beneath the windows of their stricken lady! Having failed to visit +their wrath upon the perfidious Dick they had changed their clothes and +returned to Hopefield. If Hezekiah had not expressly commanded me not +to become the sixth man, I should have offered myself on the spot, and +waited only until Cecilia had made the inevitable answer before +summoning Wiggins to end the whole affair. Such, however, was not to +be the order of events. + +The procession, headed by Ormsby, was within a few yards of the +terrace. Cecilia, apparently unconscious of their proximity, continued +her promenade. In a moment she must recognize them, ask them into the +house, give them tea, and otherwise destroy my hope of securing her +happiness before the day's end. + +A chorus of yelps and barks, as of dogs suddenly released, greeted my +ear. The oncoming suitors heard it too, and the line wobbled +uncertainly. Then round the house swept mastiffs, hounds, terriers,--a +collection of prize-winners such as few kennels ever boasted, loping +gayly in unwonted freedom toward unknown and forbidden pastures. + +The vanguard of fox-terriers leaped down into the garden, with the rest +of the pack at their heels. Happy dogs, to find grown men ready for a +gambol! Six coat-tails streamed from the hips of six gentlemen in a +hurry. Several battered hats mixed with geraniums were retained later +as spoils of war by the gardener. That garden had been built for +repose and contemplative amblings, not for panic and flight. The +disorder was superior in picturesqueness to that which attended the +pumpkin stampede; at least it struck me at the moment as funnier; and I +have never since been able to attend a day wedding without appearing +idiotic--the procession of ushers suggests possibilities that are too +much for me. Four of the suitors found one of the proper exits into +the road; two leaped the box-hedge on the other side without shaking a +leaf. + +I ran round the house, stumbling through the rear-guard of the truant +canines, and passing the kennel-master, who had rallied the stable men +and was in hot pursuit. + +"Somebody turned 'em out--turned 'em out!" he shouted, and swept +profanely by. The gate of the kennel-yard stood open. A familiar +figure, running low, paused, and then sprinted nimbly along the paddock +fence. A white sweater was distinguishable for a moment on a stone +wall, then it followed a pair of enchanted heels into oblivion. + +Time had been passing swiftly, and the shadows were deepening. I +retraced my steps toward the terrace, hearing the cries of pursued and +pursuers growing fainter. I had not yet gained a position from which I +could see Cecilia, when a man appeared some distance ahead of me, +walking guardedly in one of the garden-plots. He came uncertainly, +pausing to glance about, yet evidently led toward the terrace by a +definite purpose. All may be fair in love and war, but I confess to a +feeling of pity for John Stewart Dick as I watched him slowly advancing +to his fate. He was going boldly now, and I felt a sudden liking for +him; nor can I believe that he was other than a manly fellow with sound +brains and a good heart. + +I reasoned, as I marked his approach to the terrace, that he had been +loitering in the neighborhood, probably watching Cecilia and Pepperton, +and when the architect retired, he had assumed that the sixth man had +spoken. The appearance of his former comrades of the inn had doubtless +disturbed him as it had me; then, thanks to the resourceful Hezekiah, +they had been routed and the coast was clear. I think it likely that +the sight of Cecilia sombrely pacing the terrace in the darkening +shadows was too much for his philosophic poise, or like the rest of us +who were actors in that comedy, he may have felt that any end was +better than the doubts and uncertainties that beset us. + +I watched him draw nearer to Cecilia as I have watched deer go down to +a lake to drink. He would speak now; I was confident of it; and I +stole round to the side entrance and sent word to Wiggins to go to the +drawing-room and wait for me. + +Miss Octavia and Pepperton still lingered over their tea-cups. The row +made by the fugitives from her kennels had not, it seemed, penetrated +to the library, and Miss Octavia bade me join the talk, which had to +do, I remember, with some project for a national hall of fame that had +incurred her characteristic displeasure. A hall of immortal rascals in +pillories she thought far likelier to please the masses. + +In fifteen minutes I saw Cecilia crossing the hall. She stopped where +I could see her quite plainly, and thrust her hand into the pocket of +her coat. Out flashed the silver note-book. She made a swift notation +with the pencil that now, I knew, wrote the fate of the sixth man. + +I went out and spoke to her, and walked beside her to the drawing-room +door, where Hartley Wiggins was waiting. + +Miss Octavia had risen when I returned to the library, and it was time +to dress for dinner. + +"Just a moment, Miss Hollister. Something of great interest is about +to occur;" and I made excuses for detaining her for perhaps five +minutes,--not more. + +"You have never yet deceived me, Arnold Ames, and such is my confidence +in you that if you tell me that something interesting will soon occur, +I have no reason to doubt you. It is worth remembering, however, that +fowl is not improved by prolonged roasting." + +I heard Wiggins laugh in the hall, and Miss Octavia raised her head. +Then Cecilia came into the room, and walked directly to her aunt. + +"Aunt Octavia, here is the little silver notebook you gave me in Paris; +I have just written Mr. Wiggins's name in it, and as I have no further +use for the book, I return it with my love and thanks." + +Without a word, Miss Octavia turned to the wall and pressed the button +twice. + +"William," she said as the butler appeared, "you may serve Oriana '97, +and be careful not to freeze it to death; and the hour for dinner is +changed to eight. Arnold, you may yourself drive to Gooseberry +Bungalow for my brother and niece. They dine with me to-night." + + +Hezekiah and I built our bungalow in the orchard where on that October +afternoon I found her munching a red apple on the stone wall. She is +the most scrupulous of housewives, and only now took me to task for +scattering the hearth with fragments of the notes from which this +narrative has been written. She has just been reading these last +pages, with meditative brown eyes, and not without occasionally +reaching for the pen and retouching some sentence in which, she says, +soot from my chimney-doctoring days has clogged the ink. Cecilia and +Wiggins live at Hopefield across the fields. Miss Octavia insisted on +this, for the reason that the sword of Hartley's great-grandfather, +found in the chest under the old house, gives him inalienable rights to +the premises. Miss Octavia and her brother Bassford are traveling +abroad and enjoying those mild adventures to which they are both +temperamentally inclined. As Miss Octavia carried with her the Parker +House umbrella-check I am confident of her early return. + +My name is joined to Pepperton's on his office-door. Pepperton +proposed this arrangement, with so many assurances of faith in me that +I could not refuse him; but I knew well enough that Miss Octavia had +first put it into his head. So while I have called myself a +chimney-doctor in these pages, I am again an architect, and the new +cathedral now rising at Waxahaxie is, let me modestly note, the work of +my hand. + +"You ought to say something more about the Asolando," Hezekiah has just +murmured at my shoulder. "Everybody will ask whether we ever went back +there." + +"Of course we go back there, Hezekiah, every time you come to town and +can get hold of me. Will that be enough?" + +"You'd better explain that Aunt Octavia started the tea-room and still +owns it, and makes money out of it, though she rarely goes there, but +sends Freda the maid to collect the profits. And it won't do any harm +to say that when she met you there that day, she decided at once that +you would be a proper husband for me. Any one who reads your book will +want to know that." + +Hezekiah is always right; so here endeth the chronicle. + + + + +The Riverside Press + +CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS + +U . S . A + + + + +THE RIGHT STUFF + +By IAN HAY + +"Those who love the companionship of people of fine fibre, and to whom +a sense of humor has not been denied, will make no mistake in seeking +the society open to them in 'The Right Stuff.'"--_New York Times_. + +"Hay resembles Barrie, and, like Barrie, he will grow in many +ways."--_Cleveland Leader_. + +"A compelling tribute to the homely genuineness and sterling worth of +Scottish character."--_St. Louis Post Dispatch_. + +"Mr. Hay has written a story which is pure story and is a delight from +beginning to end."--_San Francisco Argonaut_. + +"It would be hard, indeed, to find a more winning book."--_New Orleans +Times-Democrat_. + + + +With frontispiece by James Montgomery Flagg. 12mo. + +$1.20 net. Postage 10 cents. + + + * * * * * * * * + + +THE TWISTED FOOT + +By HENRY MILNER RIDEOUT + +"Henry Milner Rideout has written several good stories of Oriental +mystery, but none of them approach in excellence 'The Twisted +Foot.'"--_Cleveland Plain Dealer_. + +"The story is fascinating and full of the witchery of the +East."--_Congregationalist_. + +"Its persuasiveness of action, its alluring color and high heart +courage, make it one of the striking romances of the time."--_New York +American_. + +"The whole story glows with the local life and color."--_New York +Times_. + + + +With seven full-page illustrations by G. C. Widney. + +12mo. $1.20 net. Postage 11 cents. + + + * * * * * * * * + + +THE PROFESSIONAL AUNT + +By MARY C. E. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/35942-8.zip b/35942-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9c433d8 --- /dev/null +++ b/35942-8.zip diff --git a/35942-h.zip b/35942-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..14fade6 --- /dev/null +++ b/35942-h.zip diff --git a/35942-h/35942-h.htm b/35942-h/35942-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4190c86 --- /dev/null +++ b/35942-h/35942-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,13535 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of The Siege of The Seven Suitors, +by Meredith Nicholson +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.t1 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 200%; + text-align: center } + +P.t2 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 150%; + text-align: center } + +P.t3 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 100%; + text-align: center } + +P.t4 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 80%; + text-align: center } + +P.t5 {text-indent: 0% ; + font-size: 50%; + text-align: center } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; } + +P.letter {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +H4.h4center { margin-left: 0; + margin-right: 0 ; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + float: none ; + clear: both ; + text-align: center } + +IMG.imgcenter { margin-left: auto; + margin-bottom: 0; + margin-top: 1%; + margin-right: auto; } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's The Siege of the Seven Suitors, by Meredith Nicholson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Siege of the Seven Suitors + +Author: Meredith Nicholson + +Illustrator: C. Coles Phillips + Reginald Birch + +Release Date: April 24, 2011 [EBook #35942] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SIEGE OF THE SEVEN SUITORS *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<A NAME="img-front"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-front.jpg" ALT=""Hezekiah"" BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +"Hezekiah" +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t1"> +The Siege of +<BR> +The Seven Suitors +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t4"> +BY +</P> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +MEREDITH NICHOLSON +</P> + +<P CLASS="t4"> +AUTHOR OF "THE HOUSE OF A THOUSAND CANDLES," ETC. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t4"> +ILLUSTRATED BY C. COLES PHILLIPS +<BR> +AND REGINALD BIRCH +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t4"> +BOSTON AND NEW YORK +<BR> +HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY +<BR> +The Riverside Press Cambridge +<BR> +1910 +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t4"> +COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY MEREDITH NICHOLSON +<BR> +ALL RIGHTS RESERVED +<BR><BR> +<I>Published October 1910</I> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +TO +<BR> +THE HONORABLE THOMAS R. MARSHALL +</P> + +<P> +MY DEAR GOVERNOR:—It was ordered by the franchises of destiny that you +become the chief executive of a state in which the telling of tales +brightened the hunter's camp-fire and cheered the lonely pioneer's +cabin before our people learned the uses of ink; and the supreme +fitness of this lies in the fact that you are yourself the best of +story-tellers and entitled, for your excellence in this particular, as +well as for weightier reasons, to sit at the head of the table in that +commonwealth to which we are both bound by many and dear ties. +</P> + +<P> +The morning brings to your mail-box so many demands, necessitating the +most varied and delicate balancings and adjustments, that I serve you +ill in adding to your burdens the little packet that contains this +tale. Pray consider, however, that I have hidden it discreetly beneath +a pile of documents touching nearly the state's business; or that I +hastily serve it upon you in the highway, an unsanctioned writ from +that high court of letters in which I am the least valiant among the +bailiffs. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Sincerely yours,<BR> + M. N.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +MACKINAC ISLAND,<BR> + <I>August</I> 10, 1910.<BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t2"> +CONTENTS +</P> + +<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="80%"> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap01">MY FRIEND WIGGINS IS INTRODUCED</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap02">THE BEGINNING OF MY ADVENTURE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap03">I FALL INTO A BRIAR PATCH</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap04">WE DINE IN THE GUN-ROOM</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap05">THE STRANGE BEHAVIOR OF A CHIMNEY</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">I DELIVER A MESSAGE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap07">NINE SILK HATS CROSS A STILE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap08">CECILIA'S SILVER NOTE-BOOK</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap09">I MEET A PLAYFUL GHOST</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">X. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap10">MY BEFUDDLEMENT INCREASES</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap11">I PLAY TRUANT</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap12">THE RIDDLE OF THE SIBYL'S LEAVES</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap13">I DISCOVER TWO GHOSTS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap14">LADY'S SLIPPER</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap15">LOSS OF THE SILVER NOTE-BOOK</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap16">JACK O' LANTERN</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap17">SEVEN GOLD REEDS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap18">TROUBLE AT THE PRESCOTT ARMS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap19">THE GHOST OF ADONIRAM CALDWELL</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap20">HEZEKIAH PARTITIONS THE KINGDOM</A></TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +THE SIEGE OF THE SEVEN SUITORS +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +I +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +MY FRIEND WIGGINS IS INTRODUCED +</H4> + +<P> +I dined with Hartley Wiggins at the Hare and Tortoise on an evening in +October, not very long ago. It may be well to explain that the Hare +and Tortoise is the smallest and most select of clubs, whose windows +afford a pleasant view of Gramercy Park. The club is comparatively +young, and it is our joke that we are so far all tortoises, creeping +through our several professions without aid from any hare. I hasten to +explain that I am a chimney doctor. Wiggins is a lawyer; at least I +have seen his name in a list of graduates of the Harvard Law School, +and he has an office down-town where I have occasionally found him +sedately playing solitaire while he waited for some one to take him out +to luncheon. He spends his summers on a South Dakota ranch, from which +he derives a considerable income. When tough steaks are served from +the club grill, we always attribute them to the cattle on Wiggins's +hills. Or if the lamb is ancient, we declare it to be of Wiggins's +shepherding. It is the way of our humor to hold Wiggins responsible +for things. His good nature is usually equal to the worst we can do to +him. He is the kind of fellow that one instinctively indicts without +hearing testimony. We all know perfectly well that Wiggins's ranch is +a wheat ranch. +</P> + +<P> +Wiggins is an athlete, and his summers in the West and persistent +training during the winter in town keep him in fine condition. As I +faced him to-night in our favorite corner of the Hare and Tortoise +dining-room, the physical man was fit enough; but I saw at once that he +was glum and dispirited. He had through many years honored me with his +confidence, and I felt that to-night, after we got well started, I +should hear what was on his mind. I hoped to cheer him with the story +of a visit I had by chance paid that afternoon to the Asolando +Tea-Room; for though Wiggins is a most practical person, I imagined +that he would be diverted by my description of a place which, I felt +sure, nothing could tempt him to visit. I shall never forget the look +he gave me when I remarked, at about his third spoonful of soup: +</P> + +<P> +"By the way, I dropped into an odd place this afternoon. Burne-Jones +buns, maccaroons, and all that sort of thing. They call it the +Asolando." +</P> + +<P> +I was ambling on, expecting to sharpen his curiosity gradually as I +recited the joys of the tea-room; but at "Asolando" his spoon dropped, +and he stared at me blankly. It should be known that Wiggins is not a +man whose composure is lightly shaken. The waiter who served us +glanced at him in surprise, a fact which I mention merely to confirm my +assertion that the dropping of a spoon into his soup was an +extraordinary occurrence in Wiggins's life. Wiggins was a proper +person. On the ranch, twenty miles from a railroad, he always dressed +for dinner. +</P> + +<P> +"The Asolando," I repeated, to break the spell of his blank stare. +"Know the place?" +</P> + +<P> +He recovered in a moment, but he surveyed me quizzically before +replying. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course I have heard of the Asolando, but I thought you did n't go +in for that sort of thing. It's a trifle girlish, you know." +</P> + +<P> +"That's hardly against it! I found the girlishness altogether +attractive." +</P> + +<P> +"You always were tolerably susceptible, but broiled butterflies and +moth-wings soufflé seem to me rather pale food for a man in your +vigorous health." +</P> + +<P> +"They must have discriminated in your favor; I saw no such things, +though to be sure I was afraid to quibble over the waitress's +suggestions. May I ask when you were there?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I dropped in quite accidentally one day last spring. I saw the +sign, and remembered that somebody had spoken of the place, and I was +tired, and it was a long way to the club, and"— +</P> + +<P> +Dissimulation is not an art as Wiggins attempts to practice it at +times. He is by nature the most straightforward of mortals. It was +clear that he was withholding something, and I resolved to get to the +bottom of it. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think the Asolando is a place that would attract either of us, +and yet the viands are good as such stuff goes, and the gentle +hand-maidens are restful to the eye,—Pippa, Francesca, Gloria, and the +rest of 'em." +</P> + +<P> +Wiggins pried open his artichoke with the care of a botanist. He had +regained his composure, but I saw that the subject interested him. +</P> + +<P> +"You were there this afternoon?" he inquired. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, my first and only appearance." +</P> + +<P> +"And this is Monday." +</P> + +<P> +"The calendar has said it." +</P> + +<P> +"So you settled your bill with Pippa! I believe this was her day." +</P> + +<P> +"Then you really do know the inner workings of the Asolando," I +continued; "I thought you would show your hand presently. Then it is +perhaps Gloria, Beatrice or Francesca who minds the till on Tuesdays, +Thursdays and Saturdays, alternating with Pippa, who took my coin +to-day. It's a pretty idea. It has the delicacy of an arrangement by +Whistler or the charm of a line in Rossetti. So you have seen the +blessed damozel at the cash-desk." +</P> + +<P> +"On the contrary I was never there on Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday, +and I therefore passed no coin to Francesca, Gloria or Beatrice. My +only visit was on a day last May, and my recollection of the system is +doubtless imperfect." +</P> + +<P> +"Then beyond doubt I saw Pippa. She makes the change on Monday, +Wednesday and Friday. Her eyelashes are a trifle too long for the +world's peace." +</P> + +<P> +"I dare say. I have n't your charming knack, Ames, of picking up +acquaintances, so you must n't expect me to form life-long friendships +with young women at cash-desks. I suppose it did n't occur to you that +those young women who tend till and serve the tables in there are +persons of education and taste. The Asolando is not a common hashery. +I sometimes fear that so much crawling through chimneys is clouding +your intellect. It ought to have been clear even to your smoky +chimney-pot that those girls in there are not the kind you can ask to +meet you by the old mill at the fall of dewy eve, or who write notes to +popular romantic actors. There's not a girl in that place who has n't +a social position as good as yours or mine. The Asolando's a kind of +fad, you know, Ames; it's not a tavern within the meaning of the +inn-keepers' act, where common swine are fed for profit. The servants +serve for love of the cause; it's a sort of cult. But I suppose you +are incapable of grasping it. There was always something sordid in +you, and I'm pained to find that you're getting worse." +</P> + +<P> +Wiggins had, before now, occasionally taken this attitude toward me, +and it was always with a view to obscuring some real issue between us. +He requires patience; it is a mistake to attempt to crowd him; but give +him rope and he will twist his own halter. +</P> + +<P> +We sparred further without result. I had suggested a topic that had +clearly some painful association for my friend. He drank his coffee +gloomily and lighted a cigar much blacker than the one I knew to be his +favorite in the Hare and Tortoise humidor. He excused himself shortly, +and I had a glimpse of him later, in the writing-room, engaged upon +letters, a fact in itself disquieting, for Wiggins never wrote letters, +and it was he who had favored making the Hare and Tortoise writing-room +into a den for pipe-smokers. The epistolary habit, he maintained, was +one that should be discouraged. +</P> + +<P> +I was moodily turning over the evening newspapers when Jewett turned +up. Jewett always knows everything. I shall not call him a gossip, +but he comes as near deserving the name as a man dares who lectures on +the Renaissance before clubs and boarding-schools. Jewett knows his +Botticelli, but his knowledge of his contemporaries is equally exact. +He dropped the ball into the green of my immediate interest with a neat +approach-shot. +</P> + +<P> +"Too bad about old Wiggy," he remarked with his preluding sigh. +</P> + +<P> +"What's the matter with Wiggins?" I demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah! He has n't told you? Thought he told you everything." +</P> + +<P> +This was meant for a stinger, and I felt the bite of it. +</P> + +<P> +"You do me too much honor. Wiggins is not a man to throw around his +confidences." +</P> + +<P> +"And I rather fancy that his love-affairs in particular are locked in +his bosom." +</P> + +<P> +Jewett was a master of the art of suggestion; he took an unnecessarily +long time to light a cigar so that his words might sink deep into my +consciousness. +</P> + +<P> +"Saw her once last spring. Got a sight draft from the Bank of Eros. +Followed her across the multitudinous sea. Bang!" +</P> + +<P> +"But Wiggy has n't been abroad. Wiggy was on his Dakota ranch all +summer. He's all tanned from the sun, just as he is every fall," I +persisted. +</P> + +<P> +"Wrote you from out there, did he? Sent you picture-postals showing +him herding his cattle, or whatever the beasts are? Kept in touch with +you all the time, did he? I tell you his fine color is due to +Switzerland, not Dakota." +</P> + +<P> +"Wiggins is n't a letter-writer, nor the sort of person who wants to +paper your house with picture-postals. His not writing does n't mean +that he was n't on his ranch," I replied, annoyed by Jewett's manner. +</P> + +<P> +"Never dropped you before, though, I wager," he chirruped. "I tell you +he saw Miss Cecilia Hollister at the Asolando tea-shop: just a glimpse; +but almost immediately he went abroad in pursuit of her. The +chevalier—that's her aunt Octavia—was along and another niece. My +sister saw the bunch of them in Geneva, where the chevalier was +breaking records. A whole troop of suitors followed them everywhere. +My sister knows the girl—Cecilia—and she's known Wiggy all her life. +She's just home and told me about it last night. She thinks the +chevalier has some absurd scheme for marrying off the girl. It's all +very queer, our Wiggy being mixed up in it." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't be absurd, Jewett. There's nothing unusual in a man being in +love; that's one fashion that does n't change much. I venture to say +that Wiggins will prove a formidable suitor. Wiggins is a gentleman, +and the girl would be lucky to get him." +</P> + +<P> +"Quite right, my dear Ames; but alas! there are others. The +competition is encouraged by the aunt, the veteran chevalier. My +sister says the chevalier seems to favor the suit of a Nebraska +philosopher who rejoices in the melodious name of Dick." +</P> + +<P> +Jewett was playing me for all his story was worth, and enjoying himself +immensely. +</P> + +<P> +"For Heaven's sake, go on!" +</P> + +<P> +"Nice girl, this Cecilia. You know the Hollisters,—oodles of money in +the family. The chevalier's father scored big in +baby-buggies—responsible for the modern sleep-inducing perambulators; +sold out to a trust. The father of Wiggins's inamorata had started in +to be a marine painter. A founder of this club, come to think of it, +but dropped out long ago. You have heard of him—Bassford Hollister. +Funny thing his having to give up art. Great gifts for the marine, but +never could overcome tendency to seasickness. Honest! Every time he +painted a wave it upset him horribly. The doctors could n't help him. +Next tried his hand at the big gulches down-town. There was a chance +there to hit off the metropolitan sky-line and become immortal by doing +it first; but a new trouble developed. Doing the high buildings made +him dizzy! Honest! He was good, too, and would have made a place, but +he had to cut it out. He was so torn up over his two failures that he +blew in his share of the perambulator money in riotous living. Lost +his wife into the bargain, and has settled down to a peaceful life up +in Westchester County in one of these cute little bungalows the +real-estate operators build for you if you pay a dollar down for a +picture of an acre lot." +</P> + +<P> +"And the daughter?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Bassford Hollister has two daughters. It's the older one that +has stolen Wiggins's heart away. She's Cecilia, you know. Very +literary and that sort of thing, and pushed tea and cookies at the +Asolando when that idiocy was opened. Wiggins saw her there last +spring. Miss Hollister, the aunt,—whom I 'm fond of calling the +chevalier,—picked up her nieces about that time and hauled them off to +Europe, and Wiggins scampered after them. I don't know what they did +to Wiggy, but you see how he acts. I rather imagine that the chevalier +did n't smile on his suit. She's a holy terror, that woman, with an +international reputation for doing weird and most unaccountable things. +She draws a sort of royalty on all the baby-buggies in creation; it +amounts to a birth-tax, in contravention of the free guarantees of the +Constitution. The people will rise against it some day. +</P> + +<P> +"She's plausible enough, but she's the past mistress of ulterior +motive. She got Fortner, the mural painter, up to a place she used to +have at Newport a few years ago, ostensibly to do a frieze or +something, and she made him teach her to fire a gun. You know Fortner, +with his artistic ideals! And he did n't know any more about guns than +a flea. It was droll, decidedly droll. But she kept him there a +month,—wouldn't let him off the reservation; but she paid him his fee +just the same, though he never painted a stroke. When he got back to +town, he was a wreck. It was just like being in jail. I warn you to +let her alone. If you should undertake to fix her flues she's likely +to put you to work digging potatoes. She's no end of a case." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Wiggins is a good fellow, one of the very best," I remarked, as +I absorbed these revelations, "and it is n't the girl's aunt he wants +to marry." +</P> + +<P> +"He's a capital fellow," affirmed Jewett, "and that's why it's a sin +this had to happen to him. There's no telling where this affair may +lead him. There's something queer in the wind, all right. The +chevalier has brother Bassford where he can't whimper; I rather fancy +he feeds from her hand. His girls have n't any prospects except +through the chevalier. Nice girls, so I'm told; but between the father +with his vertiginous tendencies and a lunatic aunt who holds the family +money-bags, I don't see much ahead of them. Miss Cecilia Hollister is +living with her aunt; it's a sort of compulsory sequestration; she has +to do it whether she wants to or not. I rather fancy it's to keep her +away from Wiggins." +</P> + +<P> +"And the other sister; where does she come in?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not important, I fancy. Rumor is silent touching her. In fact I 've +never heard anything of her. But this Cecilia is no end handsome and +proud. Poor old Wiggy!" +</P> + +<P> +I was already ashamed of myself for having encouraged Jewett to discuss +Wiggins's affairs, and was about to leave him, when he snorted, in a +disagreeable way he had, at some joke that had occurred to him, and he +continued chuckling to himself to attract my attention. My frown did +not dismay him. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-013"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-013.jpg" ALT="He continued chuckling to himself to attract my attention." BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +He continued chuckling to himself to attract my attention. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"I knew there was something," he was saying, "about Miss Cecilia's +younger sister, and I've just recalled it. The girl has a most +extraordinary name, quite the most remarkable you ever heard." +</P> + +<P> +He laughed until he was purple in the face. I did not imagine that any +name known to feminine nomenclature could be so humorous. +</P> + +<P> +"Hezekiah! Bang! That's the little sister's name. Bassford Hollister +had been saving that name for a son, who never appeared, to do honor to +old Hezekiah, the perambulator-chap. So they named the girl for her +grand-dad. Bang! One of the apostles, Hezekiah!" +</P> + +<P> +I waited for his mirth to wear itself out, and then rose, to terminate +the interview with an adequate dramatic dismissal. +</P> + +<P> +"You poor pagan," I remarked, with such irony as I could command; "it's +too bad you insist on revealing the abysmal depths of your ignorance: +Hezekiah was not an apostle, but a mighty king before the day of +apostles." +</P> + +<P> +I left him blinking, and unconvinced as to Hezekiah's proper place in +history. +</P> + +<P> +Wiggins, I learned at the office, had, within half an hour, left the +club hurriedly in a cab, taking a trunk with him. He had mentioned no +mail-address to the clerk. +</P> + +<P> +And this was very unlike Wiggins. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER II +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE BEGINNING OF MY ADVENTURE +</H4> + +<P> +Wiggins's strange conduct and Jewett's dark hints so disturbed me that +the very next afternoon I again sought the Asolando Tea-Room, feeling +that in its atmosphere I might best weigh the few facts I possessed +touching my friend's love-affairs. +</P> + +<P> +Those who care for details in these matters may be interested to know +that the Asolando is tucked away among print-shops and exclusive +haberdashers, a stone's throw from Fifth Avenue. The Asolando Tea-Room +has a history of its own, but it is not the office of this chronicler +to record it. Weightier matters are ahead of us; and it must suffice +that the Asolando is sacred to wooers of the flute of Pan, secession +photographers, and confident believers in an early revival of the +poetic drama. One of my friends, who has probably done more to +popularize Nietzsche than any other American, had frequently urged me +to visit the Asolando, where, he declared, the daintiest imaginable +luncheons could be obtained at nominal prices; but I should not have +paid this second visit had it not been for Jewett's history. +</P> + +<P> +It was common gossip in studios where I loafed between my professional +engagements, that the monthly deficit at the Asolando was cared for by +a retired banker whose weakness is sonnet-sequences. As to the truth +of this I have no opinion. It will suffice if I convey in the fewest +possible lines a suggestion of the tranquillity, the charming cloistral +peace of the little room, with its Arts and Crafts chairs and tables, +its racks of books, its portraits of Browning, Rossetti, Burne-Jones +and kindred spirits; nor should I fail to mention the delightful +inadvertence with which neatly framed excerpts from the bright page of +British song are scattered along the walls. Nowhere else, many had +averred, was one so likely to learn of the latest Celtic poet, or of a +newly-discovered Keats letter; and lest injustice be done in these +suggestions to the substantial scholarly attainments of the habitués, I +must record that it was over a cup of tea in the Asolando that Bennett +made the first notes for his revolutionary essay on the Sapphic +fragments in a dog-eared text still treasured among the Room's +memorabilia. +</P> + +<P> +I chose a table, sat down, and suggested (one does not order at the +Asolando) a few articles from the card an attendant handed me. +</P> + +<P> +"We 're out of the Paracelsus ginger-cookies," she replied, "but I +recommend a Ruskin sandwich with our own special chocolate. The +whipped cream is unusually fine to-day." +</P> + +<P> +She eyed me with a severity to which I was not accustomed, and I +acquiesced without parley in her suggestion. Before leaving me she +placed on my table the latest minor poet, in green and gold. +</P> + +<P> +It was nearly three o'clock, and there were few customers in the +Asolando. At the next table two women were engaged in conversation in +the subdued tones the place compelled. I surmised from the amount and +variety of their impedimenta and their abstracted air, peculiar to +those who partake of lobster salad with an eye on the 4.18, that they +were suburbanites. One of them drew from her net shopping-bag several +sheets of robin's-egg blue note-paper and began to read. By the jingle +of the rhymes and the flow of the rhythm it was clear even to my +ignorant lay mind that her offering was a <I>chant-royale</I>. When she had +concluded her reading her friend silently pressed her hand, and after a +subdued debate for possession of the check, they took their departure, +bound, I surmised, for some muse-haunted Lesbos among the hills of New +Jersey. +</P> + +<P> +I was now alone in the Asolando. The attending deities in their snowy +gowns had vanished behind the screen at the rear of the room; the food +and drink with which I had been promptly served proved excellent; even +the minor poet in green and gold had held my attention, though +imitations of Coventry Patmore's odes bore me as a rule. Near the +street, half-concealed behind a mosque-like grill, sat the cashier, +reading. A bundle of joss-sticks in a green jar beside this young +woman sent a thin smoke into the air. Her head was bent above her book +in quiet attention; the light from an electric lamp made a glow of her +golden hair. She was an incident of the general picture, a part of a +scene that contained no jarring note. A man who could devise, in the +heart of the great city, a place so instinct with repose, so lulling to +all the senses, was not less than a public benefactor, and I resolved +on the spot to purchase and read, at any sacrifice, the +sonnet-sequences of the reputed angel of the Asolando. +</P> + +<P> +It was at this moment that the adventure—for it shall have no meaner +name—actually began. My eyes were still enjoying the Rossetti-like +vision in the cashier's tiny booth, when a figure suddenly darkened the +street door just beyond her. The girl lifted her head. On the instant +the lamp-key clicked as she extinguished her light, and the aureoled +head ceased to be. And coming toward me down the shop I beheld a lady, +a lady of years, who passed the cashier's desk with her eyes intent +upon the room's inner recesses. Her gown, of a new fashionable gray, +was of the severest tailor cut. Her hat was a modified fedora, gray +like the gown, and adorned with a single gray feather. She was short, +slight, erect, and moved with a quick bird-like motion, pausing and +glancing at the vacant tables that lay between me and the door. Her +air of abstraction became her, and she merged pleasantly into the +color-scheme of the room. As her glance ranged the wall I thought that +she searched for some favorite flower of song among the framed +quotations, but I saw now that her gaze was bent too low for this. She +appeared to be engaged in a calculation of some sort, and she raised a +lorgnette to assist her in counting the tables. The cashier passed +behind her unseen and vanished. I heard the newcomer reciting:— +</P> + +<P> +"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven;" and at seven her eyes rested +upon me with a look that mingled surprise and annoyance. She took a +step toward me, and I started to rise, but she said quickly:— +</P> + +<P> +"I beg your pardon, but this seems to be the seventh table." +</P> + +<A NAME="img-020"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-020.jpg" ALT=""I beg your pardon, but this seems to be the seventh table."" BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +"I beg your pardon, but this seems to be the seventh table." +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"Now that you call my attention to it," I remarked, gaining my feet, "I +am bound to concede the point. If by any chance I am intruding"— +</P> + +<P> +"Not in the least. On the other hand I beg that you remain where you +are;" and without further ado she sank into a chair opposite my own. +</P> + +<P> +I tinkled a tiny crystal bell that was among the table-furnishings, and +a waitress appeared and handed the lady who had thus introduced herself +to my acquaintance a copy of the tiny card on which the articles of +refreshment offered by the Asolando were indicated within a border of +hand-painted field daisies. +</P> + +<P> +"Never mind that," said the lady in gray, ignoring the card. "You may +bring me a caviare sandwich and a cocktail,—a pink +one—providing,—providing,"—and she held the waitress with her +eye,—"you have the imported caviare and your bar-keeper knows the +proper frappé of the spirit-lifter I have named." +</P> + +<P> +"Pardon me, madam," replied the waitress icily, "but you have mistaken +the place. The Asolando serves nothing stronger than the pure water of +its own fount of Castalia; intoxicants are not permitted here." +</P> + +<P> +"Intoxicants!" repeated the old lady with asperity. "Do I look like a +person given to intoxication? I dare say your Castalia water is +nothing but Croton whose flavor has been destroyed by distillation. +You may bring me the sandwich I have mentioned and with it a pot of +tea. Yes, thank you; lemon with the tea." +</P> + +<P> +As the girl vanished with the light tread that marked the service of +the place, I again made as to rise, but the old lady lifted her hand +with a delaying gesture. +</P> + +<P> +"Pray remain. It is not unlikely that we have friends and ideas in +common, and as you were seated at the seventh table it is possible that +some ordering of fate has brought us together." +</P> + +<P> +She took from me, in the hand which she had now ungloved, the copy of +my minor poet, glanced at it scornfully, and tossed it upon the floor +with every mark of disdain. +</P> + +<P> +"What species of mental disorder does this place represent?" she +demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"It is sacred to the fine arts, apparently; an endowed tea-room, where +persons of artistic ideals may come to refresh body and soul. Such at +least seems to be the programme. This is only my second visit, but I +have long heard it spoken of by artists, poets, and others of my +friends." +</P> + +<P> +"I am sixty-two years old, young man, and I beg to inform you that I +consider the Asolando the most preposterous thing I have ever heard of +in this most preposterous city. And from a casual glimpse of you I +feel justified in saying that a man in your apparent physical health +might be in better business than frequenting, in mid-afternoon, a shop +that seems to be a remarkably stupid expression of twentieth-century +anæmia." +</P> + +<P> +"Attendance here is not compulsory," I remarked defensively. +</P> + +<P> +"If you imply that I must have sought the place voluntarily, let me +correct your false impression immediately. I dropped in here for the +excellent reason that this shop is the seventh in numerical progression +from Fifth Avenue." +</P> + +<P> +"You were not guided by any feeling of interest, then, but rather by +superstition?" +</P> + +<P> +"That remark is unworthy of a man of your apparent intelligence. I was +born on the seventh of November, and all the great events of my life +have occurred on the seventh of the month. If you were to suggest that +I am of an adventurous or romantic nature, I should readily acquiesce; +but the sevens in my life have been so potent an influence in all my +affairs that my belief in that numeral has become almost a religious +faith; and if you have been a reader of Scripture you will understand +that one does not become a pagan in ascribing to seven all manner of +subtle influences." +</P> + +<P> +I was relieved to find that she accepted the tea and sandwiches the +waitress had brought without parley. It is with shame I confess that +in the first moments of my encounter I believed her capable of +quarreling with a waitress; but she thanked the girl pleasantly, +lifting her head with a smile that illumined her face attractively. +Her demand for a cocktail had not been wholly convincing as to her +sincerity, and I wondered whether she were not playing a part of some +kind. She suggested pleasant and wholesome things—tiny gardens with +neat borders of box and primly-ordered beds of spicy, old-fashioned +pinks before the day of carnations, and the verbenas, heliotrope, and +honeysuckle we associate with our grandmothers' taste in floriculture. +Or perhaps I strike nearer the gold with an intimation of a sunny +window-ledge, banked neatly and not too abundantly in geraniums. +</P> + +<P> +In any event the impression was wholly agreeable. I had to do with a +lady and a lady of no mean degree. The marks of breeding were upon +her, and she spoke with that quiet authority that is the despair of the +vain and vulgar. Her features were small and delicate; her ringless +hands were perfectly formed, and both face and hands belied the age to +which she had so frankly confessed. She was more than twice my age, +and there was not the slightest reason why she should not address me if +it pleased her to do so; and her obsession as to the potency of the +numeral seven was not in itself proof of an ill-balanced mind. I +recalled that my own mother had, throughout her life, imputed all +manner of occult powers and influences to the number thirteen, and I +have myself always been averse to walking beneath a ladder. Musing +thus, I reached the conclusion that this encounter was very likely the +sort of thing that happened to patrons of the Asolando. My time has, +however, a certain value, and I began to wonder just how I should +escape. I was about to excuse myself when my companion suddenly put +down her cup and addressed me with a directness that seemed habitual in +her. +</P> + +<P> +"I have formed an excellent opinion of your bringing up from the manner +in which you have suffered my advances, if I may so call them. You act +and speak like a gentleman of education. I imagine from your being in +this strange place that you may be a water-colorist or a designer of +<I>l'art-nouveau</I> wall-papers, though I trust for your own sake that I am +mistaken. Or it may be that you are a magazine poet, though when I +tell you that I read no poets but Isaiah and Walt Whitman, you will +understand that mere verse does not attract me. All this"—and she +indicated the mottoes on the wall with a slight movement of the +head—"is the sheerest rubbish, a form of disease. Will you kindly +tell me the nature of your occupation?" +</P> + +<P> +I produced one of my professional cards. +</P> + +<P STYLE="border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin-left: 25%; margin-right: 25%" ALIGN="center"> +<BR> +<SPAN STYLE="font-size: 120%">ARNOLD AMES</SPAN> +<BR><BR> +CONSULTANT IN CHIMNEYS<BR> +Suite 92, Landon Building +<BR><BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +She read it aloud without glasses and mused a moment. +</P> + +<P> +"This is very curious," she remarked, placing my card in a silver case +she drew from her pocket. "This is very curious indeed. It was only +yesterday that my friend General Glendenning was speaking of you. He +told me that you had rendered him the greatest service in adjusting +several flues in his country house at Shinnecock. My own fireplaces +doubtless require attention, and you may consider yourself retained. I +shall make an early appointment with you. You will find my name and +residence sufficiently described on this card." +</P> + +<P STYLE="border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin-left: 30%; margin-right: 30%" ALIGN="center"> +<BR> +<I>Miss Hollister</I> +<BR><BR> +<SPAN STYLE="font-size: 80%">HOPEFIELD MANOR</SPAN><BR> +<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"Oh!" I exclaimed, bowing. "Any further introduction is unnecessary, +Miss Hollister." +</P> + +<P> +"The name is familiar? I recall that General Glendenning mentioned +that you were related to the Ames family of Hartford, and your mother +was a Farquhar of Charlottesville, Virginia. If you bear your father's +name, I dare say it was he whom I met ten years ago in Paris. There is +no reason, therefore, why we should not be the best of friends." +</P> + +<P> +She continued to talk as she drew on her gloves, and I saw, as her eyes +rested on mine from time to time during this process, that they were +the most kindly and humorous eyes in the world. Her face was scarcely +wrinkled, but the hair that showed under the small plain hat was evenly +and beautifully gray. It was a kind fate indeed that had led me back +to the Asolando, and introduced me to the aunt of Wiggins's inamorata. +</P> + +<P> +It may well be believed that I was immediately interested, attentive, +absorbed. As she smoothed her gloves, Miss Hollister continued to +speak in a low musical voice that was devoid of any of the quavers of +age. +</P> + +<P> +"On the day I reached my sixtieth year, Mr. Ames, I decided that my +humdrum life must cease. The strictest conventions had guided me from +earliest childhood. My experience of life had been limited to those +things which women of education and means enjoy—or suffer, as you +please to take it. I resolved that for the years that remained to me I +should seek to enjoy myself after my own fashion. To sit in the +inglenook and knit, with no human companionship but sick kittens, with +dull monotony broken only by visits from dutiful clergymen in pursuit +of alms for foreign missions, was not for me. Two years ago I +chartered a yacht and cruised among the Lesser Antilles, enjoying many +adventures. Later I crossed the Andes; and I have just returned from +Switzerland, where I accomplished some of the most difficult ascents. +I have a clipping bureau engaged to inform me of all rumors of hidden +treasure and sunken ships, and I hope that of this something may come, +as I retain a marine engineer and corps of divers and can leave at an +hour's notice for any likely hunting-ground. This may strike you as +the most whimsical self-indulgence. Tell me candidly whether my +remarks so affect you." +</P> + +<P> +"If it were not that your benefactions of all kinds have given you +noble eminence among American philanthropists, I might be less biased +in favor of the sort of thing you describe; but your gifts to +orphanages, colleges, hospitals"— +</P> + +<P> +"Ah!" she interrupted; "enough of that. Philanthropy in these times is +only selfish exploitation, the recreation of the conscience-stricken. +But you see no reason why," she pursued eagerly, "if I wished to dig up +the Caribbean Sea in search of Spanish doubloons, I should not do so? +Answer me frankly, without the slightest fear." +</P> + +<P> +"I assure you, Miss Hollister, that such projects appeal to me +strongly. I have often lamented that my own lot fell in these +eventless times. As an architect I proved something of a failure; as a +chimney-doctor I lead a useful life, but the very usefulness of it +bores me. And besides, many people take me for a sweep." +</P> + +<P> +"I dare say they do, for unfortunately many people are fools. But I am +bent upon adventure. It has dawned upon me that every day has its +possibilities, that the right turn at any corner may bring me face to +face with the most stirring encounters. My age protects me where youth +must timidly turn back. My physician pronounces me good for ten years +more of active life, and I intend to keep amused. If I were a young +man like you, I should crawl through chimneys no more, but take to the +open road. I resent the harsh clang of these meaningless years. As I +walked among the hills that lie behind the Manor this morning I heard +the bugles calling. Out there in the Avenue at this hour there are +miles of fat dowagers in padded broughams who think of nothing but +clothes and food. And speaking of food," she continued, with a droll +turn, "I am convinced that the caviare in that sandwich was never +nearer Russia than Casco Bay." +</P> + +<P> +She drew out her watch, and noting the hour, concluded:— +</P> + +<P> +"Clearly we have much in common. I should like to ask you further as +to your unusual profession, but errands summon me elsewhere. However, +something tells me we shall meet again." +</P> + +<P> +She rose in her swift bird-like fashion and passed lightly down the +room and through the door. She had left a dollar beside her plate to +pay her check, which I noted called for only forty cents. I glanced at +the cashier's desk. The aureoled head had not reappeared; but +immediately I heard a voice murmuring beside me. I had believed myself +alone, and in my surprise I thought some wizardry had made audible one +of the verses on the wall. +</P> + +<P> +"What of Rafael's sonnets, Dante's picture"—<BR> +</P> + +<P> +</P> + +<P> +It was she whose aureoled head I had marked earlier in the receipt of +custom, the girl who had vanished as Miss Hollister appeared. She wore +the snowy vestments of the other attending vestals, with the difference +that the cap that crowned the waitresses was omitted in her case. This +I took to be the Asolando's tribute to her adorable head, which clearly +did not need the electric light or other adventitious aid to invoke its +lovely glow. The line she had spoken hung goldenly upon the air. She +was not tall, and her eyes, I saw, were brown. She had clearly not +climbed far the stairway of her years, but her serenity was the least +bit disconcerting. +</P> + +<P> +"Pardon me," I began, "but I am an ignorant Philistine, and cannot cap +the verse you have quoted." +</P> + +<P> +"There is no reason why you should do so. It is the rule of the +Asolando that we shall attract the attention of customers when +necessary by speaking a line of verse. We are not allowed to open a +conversation, no matter how imperative, with 'Listen,' or the even more +vulgar 'Say.'" +</P> + +<P> +"A capital idea, of which I heartily approve, but now that I am a +waiting auditor, eager"— +</P> + +<P> +"It's merely the check, if you please," she interrupted coldly. "My +desk is closed, and the Room will refuse further patrons for the next +hour, as the executive committee of the Shelley Society meets here at +four o'clock and the Asolando is denied to outsiders." +</P> + +<P> +"This, then, is my dismissal? The lady who joined me here for a time +left a dollar, which, you will see, is somewhat in excess of her check. +My own charge of fifty cents is so moderate that I cannot do less than +leave a dollar also." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you," she replied, unshaken by my generosity. "The tips at the +Asolando all go to the Sweetness and Light Club, which is just now +engaged in circulating Matthew Arnold's poems in leaflet form in the +jobbing district." +</P> + +<P> +"I sympathize with that propaganda," I replied, gathering up my hat and +stick, "and am delighted to contribute to its support. And now I dare +say you would be glad to be rid of me. The Asolando has tolerated me +longer than my slight purchases justified." +</P> + +<P> +I bowed and had turned away, when she arrested me with the line,— +</P> + +<P> +"My good blade carves the casques of men."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +</P> + +<P> +I turned toward her. Several of the waitresses were now engaged in +rearranging the tables, but they seemed not to heed us. +</P> + +<P> +"Permit me to inquire," she asked, "whether the lady who joined you +here expressed any interest in the life beautiful as it is exemplified +in the Asolando?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am constrained to say that she did not. She spoke of the Asolando +in the most contumelious terms." +</P> + +<P> +The golden head bowed slightly, and a smile hovered about her lips; but +her amusement at my answer was more eloquently stated in her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"I must explain that my sole excuse for addressing you is that we are +required to learn, where possible, just why strangers seek the +Asolando." +</P> + +<P> +"In the case of the lady to whom you refer, it was a matter of this +being the seventh shop from the corner; and my own appearance was due +to the idlest curiosity, inspired by enthusiastic descriptions of the +Asolando's atmosphere and rumors of the cheapness of its food." +</P> + +<P> +"The reasons are quite ample," was her only comment, and her manner did +not encourage further conversation. +</P> + +<P> +"May I ask," I persisted, "whether the Asolando's staff is permanent, +and whether, if I return another day." +</P> + +<P> +"I take it that you do not mean to be impertinent, so I will answer +that my service here is limited to Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. +On the other days Pippa is in the cash-booth. My name at the Asolando +is Francesca." +</P> + +<P> +"I had guessed it might be Lalage or Chloris," I ventured. +</P> + +<P> +She shook her head gravely. +</P> + +<P> +"Kindly write your name in the visitors' book at the door as you pass +out." +</P> + +<P> +There was no ignoring this hint. I thought she smiled as I left her. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +III +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I FALL INTO A BRIAR PATCH +</H4> + +<P> +Miss Hollister's summons lay on my desk the next morning and was of the +briefest. I was requested to call at Hopefield Manor at four o'clock +the following afternoon, being Thursday. A trap would meet me at +Katonah, and it was suggested that I come prepared to spend the night, +so that the condition of the flues might be discussed and any necessary +changes planned during the evening. The note, signed Octavia +Hollister, was written in a flowing hand, on a wholly impeccable note +sheet stamped Hopefield Manor, Katonah. +</P> + +<P> +Before taking the train I sought Wiggins by telephone at his office, +and at the Hare and Tortoise, where he lodged, but without learning +anything as to his whereabouts. His office did not answer, but +Wiggins's office had never been responsive to the telephone, so this +was not significant. The more I considered his conduct during the +recital of my visit to the Asolando the more I wondered; and in spite +of my wish to ignore utterly Jewett's revelations as to Wiggins's +summer abroad, I was forced to the conclusion that Jewett had not lied. +I had known Wiggins long, and this was the first time that I had ever +been conscious of any withholding of confidence on his part; and on my +own I had not merely confided all my hopes and aims to him, but I had +leaned upon him often in my perplexities. There was, indeed, a kind of +boyish compact between us, that we should support each other through +all difficulties. This, as I remembered, dated back to our prep +school-days and had been reinforced by a fearsome oath, inspired +doubtless by some dark fiction that had captivated our youthful +imaginations. His failure to tell me of his summer abroad or of his +interest in the Hollisters when I had afforded him so excellent an +opening by my reference to the Asolando emphasized the seriousness of +his plight. His reserve hid, I knew, a diffident and sensitive nature, +and it was wholly possible that if his affair with Cecilia Hollister +had not prospered he had fled to his ranch there to wrestle in +seclusion with his disappointment. My mind was busy with such +speculations as I sped toward Katonah, where I found the trap from +Hopefield Manor awaiting me. +</P> + +<P> +"It's rather poor going over the hills; about five miles, sir," said +the driver, as we set off. +</P> + +<P> +This sort of thing was wholly usual in the nature of my vocation. The +flues in country houses seem much more willful and obdurate than those +in town, a fact which I have frequently discussed with architects, and +I had been met in just this way at many stations within a radius of +fifty miles of New York, and carried to houses whose chimneys were +provocative of wrath and indignation in their owners. +</P> + +<P> +This was the first week in October. There was just zest enough in the +air to make a top coat comfortable. The team of blacks spoke well for +Miss Hollister's stable, and the liveried driver kept them moving +steadily, but eased the pace as we rose on the frequent slopes to the +shoulders of pleasant hills. The immediate neighborhood into which we +were wending was unknown to me, though I saw familiar landmarks. I am +not one to quibble over the efforts of man to supplement the work of +nature, so that I confess without shame that the Croton lakes, to my +cockney eye, merge flawlessly into this landscape. It is not for me to +raise the cry of utilitarianism against these saucerfuls of blue water, +merely because the fluid thus caught and held bubbles and sparkles +later in the taps of the Manhattaners. Early frosts had already +wrought their miracle in the foliage, and the battle-banners of +winter's vanguard flashed along the horizons. I rejoiced that my +business, vexatious enough in many ways, yet afforded me so charming an +outing as this. +</P> + +<P> +Presently we climbed a hill that shouldered its way well above its +fellows and came out upon a broad ridge, where we entered at once a +noble gateway set in an old stone wall, and struck off smartly along a +fine bit of macadam. The house, the driver informed me, was a quarter +of a mile from the gate. The way led through a wild woodland in which +elms and maples predominated; and before this had grown monotonous we +came abruptly upon an Italian garden, beyond which rose the house. I +knew it at once for one of Pepperton's sound performances; Pepperton is +easily our best man in domestic Tudor, and the whole setting of +Hopefield Manor, the sunken garden, the superb view, the billowing +fields and woodlands beyond, all testified to a taste which no ignorant +owner had thwarted. The house was Tudor, but in no servile sense: it +was also Pepperton. I lifted my eyes with immediate professional +interest to the chimney-pots on the roof. It occurred to me on the +instant that I had never before been called to retouch any of +Pepperton's work. Pep knew as much as I about flue-construction; I had +an immense respect for Pep, and as my specializing in chimneys had been +a subject of frequent chaffing between us, I anticipated with a chuckle +the pleasure I should have later in telling him that at last one of his +flues had required my services. +</P> + +<P> +My good opinion of Miss Hollister did not diminish as I stepped within +the broad hall. Houses have their own manner of speech, and Hopefield +Manor spoke to all the senses in accents of taste and refinement. A +servant took my bag and ushered me into a charming library. A fire +smouldered lazily in the great fireplace; there was, in the room, the +faintest scent of burnt wood; but the smoke rose in the flue in a +perfectly mannerly fashion, and on thrusting in my hand I felt a good +draught of air. I instinctively knelt on the hearth and peered up, but +saw nothing unworkmanlike: Pepperton was not a fellow to leave obvious +mistakes behind him. But possibly this was not one of the recalcitrant +fireplaces I had been called to inspect; and I rose and was continuing +my enjoyment of the beautiful room, when I became conscious, by rather +curious and mixed processes not wholly of the eye, that a young woman +had drawn back the light portieres—they were dark brown, with borders +of burnt orange—and stood gravely gazing at me. She held the curtains +apart—they made, indeed, a kind of frame for her; but as our eyes met +she advanced at once and spoke my name. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-040"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-040.jpg" ALT="She held the curtains apart." BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +She held the curtains apart. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"You are Mr. Ames. My aunt expected you. I regret to say that she is +not in the house just now, but she will doubtless return for tea. I am +her niece. Won't you sit down?" +</P> + +<P> +As she found a seat for herself, I made bold to survey her with some +particularity. She carried her fine height with beautiful dignity. +She was a creature of grace, and it was a grace of strength, the +suppleness and ease that mark our later outdoor American woman. She +could do her miles over these hills,—I was sure of that. Her fine +olive face, crowned with dark hair, verified the impression I had +gathered from Jewett, that she was a woman of cultivation. She had +read the poets; Dante and Petrarch spoke from her eyes. Cecilia was no +bad name for her; she suggested heavenly harmonies! And as for +Jewett's story of Wiggins's infatuation, I was content: if this was the +face that had shattered the frowning towers of Wiggins's Ilium and sent +him to brood disconsolate upon his broad acres in Dakota, my heart went +out to him, for his armor had been pierced by arrows worthy of its +metal. +</P> + +<P> +She was talking, meanwhile, of the day and its buoyant air and of the +tapestries hung in the woodlands, in a voice deep with rare intimations +of viol chords. +</P> + +<P> +"It's very quiet here. It doesn't seem possible that we are so near +the city. My aunt chose the place with care, and she made no mistake +about it. Yes; the house was built by Mr. Pepperton, but not for us. +My aunt bought it of the estate of the gentleman who built it. This +will be her first winter here." +</P> + +<P> +She made no reference to the object of my visit, and I wondered if she +knew just how I came there. A man-servant wheeled in a portable +tea-table and placed it beside a particular chair, lighted the lamp +under the kettle, and silently departed. And with the stage thus +disposed Miss Hollister herself appeared. She greeted me without +surprise and much as she might have spoken to any guest in her house. +I had sometimes been treated as though I were the agent of a +decorator's shop, or a delinquent plumber, by the people whom I served; +but Miss Hollister and her niece established me upon a plane that was +wholly social. I was made to feel that it was the most natural thing +in the world for me to be there, having tea, with no business ahead of +me but to be agreeable. The fact that I had come to correct the +distemper of their flues was utterly negligible. I remembered with +satisfaction that I had journeyed from town in a new business suit that +made the best of my attenuated figure, and I will not deny that I felt +at ease. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Hollister talked briskly as she made the tea. +</P> + +<P> +"I was over at the kennels when you came. I believe the kennel-master +is a rascal, Cecilia. I have no opinion of him whatever." +</P> + +<P> +"He was highly recommended," replied the niece. "It's not his fault +that the fox terriers were sick." +</P> + +<P> +"I dare say it is n't," said the old lady, measuring the tea; "but it's +his fault that he whipped one of those Cuban hounds,—I 'm sure he +whipped her. The poor beast was afraid to crawl out when I called her +this afternoon." +</P> + +<P> +"We were warned against those dogs, Aunt Octavia; but I must admit that +they have lovely eyes." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Cecilia's manner toward her aunt left nothing to be desired; it +was wholly deferential and kind, and her dignity, I surmised, was equal +to any emergency that might rise between them. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you ever shoot behind traps?" demanded Miss Hollister abruptly. +</P> + +<P> +The question surprised me. I did not shoot behind traps or anywhere +else, for that matter; but it delighted me to find that her unusual +interests, as she had touched upon them at the Asolando, were part of a +consistent scheme of life. She talked of her experiments with +different guns and traps, her arms folded, her eyes reverting +occasionally to the kettle. It was all in the shells, she said. +Before she had begun filling her own cartridges she had no end of +trouble. +</P> + +<P> +"It is not necessary for you to take tea if you don't care for it, Mr. +Ames," she said, as I rose and handed the first cup to Cecilia. "If +you will touch the bell at your elbow you may have liquids of quite +another sort. It may interest you to know that this temperance wave +that is sweeping the country does not interest me in the least. Our +great Americans of the old times were gentlemen who took their liquor +with no cowardly fear of public censure. You will find my sideboard +well stocked after the fashion of old times; and I have with my own +hand placed in your room a quart of Scotch given me at the distillery +four years ago by its proprietor, Lord Mertondale. A case of like +quality is yours at any moment you choose to press the button at the +head of your bed." +</P> + +<P> +"You are most generous, Miss Hollister. Tea will suffice for the +moment. It is fitting that I should take it here, it having been a +weakness for tea as well as curiosity and chance that threw me in your +way at the Asolando." +</P> + +<P> +"That absurd, that preposterous hole in the wall!" +</P> + +<P> +She put down her cup and faced me, continuing: "Mr. Ames, I will not +deny that if it had not been for General Glendenning's cordial +indorsement of you, and the further fact that I had met your late +father, I should not have invited you to my house on the occasion to +which you refer. My contempt for the Asolando and the things it stands +for is beyond such language as a lady may use before the young." +</P> + +<P> +I laughed at her earnestness; but on turning toward Miss Cecilia I saw +that she was placidly stirring her cup. It might be that one was not +expected to manifest amusement in Miss Hollister's utterances; and I +was anxious to adjust myself to the proper key in my intercourse, no +matter how brief it might be, with this remarkable old lady. +</P> + +<P> +In my embarrassment I rose and offered the bread and butter to Cecilia, +who declined it. The austerity of her rejection rather unnerved me. +</P> + +<P> +"To think, that with all the opportunities for adventure that offer in +this day and generation, any one should waste time on the idiotic +worship of a lot of silly moulders of literary patisserie! It is +beyond me, Mr. Ames, and when I recall that your late father commanded +a cavalry regiment in the Civil War, I fall back upon the privilege of +my age to beg that you will hereafter give the Asolando a wide berth." +</P> + +<P> +"I assure you, Miss Hollister, that I have no wish to become an habitué +of the place. And yet you will pardon me if I repeat that, but for it, +I should not now be enjoying the hospitality of Hopefield Manor." +</P> + +<P> +She lifted her head from her cup and bowed; but I was immediately +interested in the fact that her niece was speaking. +</P> + +<P> +"I think Aunt Octavia is hard on the Asolando," she was saying. "Aunt +Octavia is interested in the revival of romance, and romance without +poetry seems to me wholly impossible. The Asolando makes no +pretensions to be more than an incident in a real movement whose aim is +the diffusion of poetic fire,—it is merely a shrine where the divine +lamp is never allowed to fail or falter." +</P> + +<P> +"And if, Cecilia Hollister, you think that sandwiches named for +Browning's poems or macaroons dedicated to Walter Pater can assist +foolish virgins in keeping their lamps filled, I give you the word of +an old woman that you are in danger of a complete loss of your mind. +The age is decadent, and I know no better way of restoring the race to +its ancient vim and energy than by sending men back to the camp and +field or to sail the high seas in new armadas. The men of this age +have become a lot of sordid shopkeepers, and to my moral sense the +looting of cities is far more honorable than the creation of trusts and +the manipulation of prices, though I cannot deny that but for my late +father's zeal in destroying his competitors in the baby-buggy business +we might not now be enjoying the delicate fragrance of caravan tea." +</P> + +<P> +I continued to flounder in my anxiety to determine just how Miss +Hollister wished to be taken. She spoke with the utmost seriousness +and with the earnestness of deep conviction. If the aims of the +Asolando were absurd, what might be said of the declarations of this +old lady in favor of a return to the age of sword and buckler! +</P> + +<P> +I again turned to Cecilia, thinking that I should find a twinkle in her +eye that might solve the riddle and make easier my responses to her +aunt's appeals. Her reply did not help me greatly:— +</P> + +<P> +"I assure you, Mr. Ames, that the Asolando is a very harmless place, +and that as a matter of fact its aims are wholly consonant with those +of Aunt Octavia. I myself served there for a time, and those were +among the most delightful days of my life." +</P> + +<P> +"And you might still be handing about the Rossetti éclairs in that +smothery little place if I had not rescued you from your bondage. I +assure you, Mr. Ames, that my niece is a perfectly healthy young woman, +to whom all such rubbish is really abhorrent." +</P> + +<P> +I expected Miss Cecilia to rouse at this; but she ignored her aunt's +fling, saying merely,— +</P> + +<P> +"There are times when I miss the Asolando." +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Ames," began Miss Octavia presently in her crisp, direct fashion, +which had the effect of leading me, in my anxiety to appear ready with +answers, to take a flattering view of my own courage and +resourcefulness,—"Mr. Ames, are you equal to the feat of swimming a +moat under a shattering fire from the castle?" +</P> + +<P> +"I have every reason to think I am, Miss Hollister," I replied modestly. +</P> + +<P> +"And if a white hand waved to you from the grilled window of the lonely +tower, would you ride on indifferently or pause and thunder at the +gate?" +</P> + +<P> +"White hands have never waved to me, save occasionally when I have gone +a-riding in the Sixth Avenue elevated, but it is my honest belief that +my sword would promptly leave its scabbard if the hand ever waved from +the ivied tower." +</P> + +<P> +She nodded her pleasure in this avowal. For a chimney-doctor I was +doing well. In fact, as I submitted to Miss Octavia's examination, I +felt equal to charging a brigade single-handed. Something about the +woman made it possible and pleasant to be absurd. +</P> + +<P> +"If a king or an emperor of Europe should ask you to inspect his +chimneys, would you be content to perform your service in the most +expeditious and professional manner and depart with a nominal fee?" +</P> + +<P> +"Decidedly not, Miss Hollister. On the other hand I should nurse the +job for all it was worth, plunder the public treasury, explore the +dungeons, make love to the princesses, and free the rightful heir to +the throne from his cell beneath the bosom of the lake." +</P> + +<P> +My friends at the Hare and Tortoise would have heard this avowal with +some surprise, for no man's life had ever been tamer than mine. I am +by nature timid, and fall but a little short of being afraid of the +dark. Prayers for deliverance from battle, murder, and sudden death +cannot be too strongly expressed for me. My answer had, however, +pleased Miss Octavia, and she clapped her hands with pleasure. +</P> + +<P> +"Cecilia," she cried, "something told me, that afternoon at the +Asolando, that my belief in the potential seven was not ill-placed, and +now you see that in introducing myself to Mr. Ames at the seventh table +from the door, in the seventh shop from Fifth Avenue, I was led to a +meeting with a gentleman I had been predestined to know." +</P> + +<P> +As we talked further, a servant appeared and laid fresh logs across the +still-smouldering fire. This I thought would suggest to Miss Hollister +the professional character of my visit; but the fire kindled readily, +the smoke rose freely in the flue; and Miss Hollister paid no attention +to it other than to ask the man whether the fuel he had taken from a +carved box at the right of the hearth was apple-wood from the upper +orchard or cherry from a tree which, it appeared, she had felled +herself. It was apple-wood, the man informed her, and she continued +talking. The merits of chain-armor, I think it was, that held us for +half an hour, Cecilia and I listening with respect to what, in my +ignorance, seemed a remarkable fund of knowledge on this recondite +subject. +</P> + +<P> +"We dine at seven, Mr. Ames, and you may amuse yourself as you like +until that hour. Cecilia, you may order dinner in the gun-room +to-night." +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly, Aunt Octavia." +</P> + +<P> +Once more I glanced at the girl, hoping that some glimmer in her eyes +would set me right and establish a common understanding and sympathy +between us; but she was moving out of the room at her aunt's side. The +man who had tended the fire met me in the hall and, conducting me to my +room, suggested various offices that he was ready to perform for my +comfort. The house faced south, and my windows, midway of the east +wing, afforded a fine view of the hills. The room was large enough for +a chamber of state, and its furniture was massive. A four-poster +invited to luxurious repose; half a dozen etchings by famous +artists—Parrish and Van Elten among them—hung upon the walls; and on +a table beside the bed stood a handsome decanter and glasses, +reinforced by the quart of Scotch which Miss Hollister had recommended +for my refreshment. +</P> + +<P> +My bag had been opened and my things put out, so that, there being more +than an hour to pass before I need dress for dinner, I went below and +explored the garden and wandered off along a winding path that stole +with charming furtiveness toward a venerable orchard of gnarled apple +trees. From the height thus gained I looked down upon the house, and +caught a glimpse beyond it of one of the chain of lakes, on which the +westering sun glinted goldenly. Thus seeing the house from a new +angle, I was impressed as I had not been at first by its size: it was a +huge establishment, and I thought with envy of Pepperton, to whom such +ample commissions were not rare. Pepperton, I recalled a little +bitterly, had arrived; whereas I, who had enjoyed exactly his own +training for the architect's profession, had failed at it and been +obliged to turn my hand to the doctoring of chimneys. But I am not a +morbid person, and it is my way to pluck such joy as I may from the +fleeting moment; and as I reflected upon the odd circumstance of my +being there, my spirits rose. Miss Hollister was beyond question a +singular person, but her whims were amusing. I felt that she was less +cryptic than her niece, and the thought of Cecilia drove me back upon +Jewett's story of Wiggins's interest in that quarter. I resolved to +write to Wiggins when I got back to town the next day and abuse him +roundly for running off without so much as good-bye. That, most +emphatically, was not like dear old Wiggins! +</P> + +<P> +I had been sitting on a stone wall watching the shadows lengthen. I +rose now and followed the wall toward a highway along which wagons and +an occasional motor-car had passed during my revery. The sloping +pasture was rough and frequently sent me along at a trot. The wall +that marked the boundary at the roadside was hidden by a tangle of +raspberry bushes, and my foot turning on a stone concealed in the wild +grasses, I fell clumsily and rolled a dozen yards into a tangle of the +berry bushes. As I picked myself up I heard voices in the road, but +should have thought nothing of it, had I not seen through a break in +the vines, and almost within reach of my hand, Cecilia Hollister +talking earnestly to some one not yet disclosed. She was hatless, but +had flung a golf-cape over her shoulders. The red scarlet lining of +the hood turned up about her neck made an effective setting for her +noble head. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I can't tell you! I can't help you! I must n't even appear to +give you any advantage. I went into it with my eyes open, and I 'm in +honor bound not to tell you anything. You have said +nothing—nothing,—remember that. There is absolutely nothing between +us." +</P> + +<P> +"But I must say everything! I refuse to be blinded by these absurd +restrictions, whatever they are. It's not fair,—it's inviting me into +a game where the cards are not all on the table. I 've come to make an +end of it!" +</P> + +<P> +My hands had suffered by contact with the briars, and I had been +ministering to them with my handkerchief; but I fell back upon the +slope in my astonishment at this colloquy. Cecilia Hollister I had +seen plainly enough, though the man's back had been toward me; but +anywhere on earth I should have known Wiggins's voice. I protest that +it is not my way to become an eavesdropper voluntarily, but to disclose +myself now was impossible. If it had not been Wiggins—but Wiggins +would never have understood or forgiven; nor could I have explained +plausibly to Cecilia Hollister that I had not followed her from the +house to spy upon her. I should have made the noise of an invading +army if I had attempted to effect an exit by creeping out through the +windrow of crisp leaves in which I lay; and to turn back and ascend the +slope the way I had come would have been to advertise my presence to +the figures in the road. There seemed nothing for me but to keep still +and hope that this discussion between Cecilia Hollister and Hartley +Wiggins would not be continued within earshot. To my relief they moved +a trifle farther on; but I still heard their voices. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-054"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-054.jpg" ALT="This discussion between Cecilia Hollister and Hartley Wiggins." BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +This discussion between Cecilia Hollister and Hartley Wiggins. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"I cannot listen to you. Now that I 'm committed I cannot honorably +countenance you at all; and I can explain nothing. I came here to meet +you only to tell you this. You must go—please! And do not attempt to +see me in this way again." +</P> + +<P> +I was grateful that Wiggins's voice sank so low in his reply that I did +not hear it; but I knew that he was pleading hard. Then a motor +flashed by, and when the whir of its passing had ceased, the voices +were inaudible; but a moment later I heard a light quick step beyond +the wall, and Cecilia passed hurriedly, her face turned toward the +house. The cape was drawn tightly about her shoulders, and she walked +with her head bowed. +</P> + +<P> +I breathed a sigh of relief, and when I felt safe from detection +climbed the slope. +</P> + +<P> +Pausing on the crest to survey the landscape, I saw a man, wearing a +derby hat and a light top-coat, leaning against a fence that inclosed a +pasture. As I glanced in his direction he moved away hastily toward +the road below. The feeling of being watched is not agreeable, and I +could not account for him. As he passed out of sight, still another +man appeared, emerging from a strip of woodland farther on. Even +through the evening haze I should have said that he was a gentleman. +The two men apparently bore no relation to each other, though they were +walking in the same direction, bound, I judged, for the highway below. +I had an uncomfortable feeling that they had both been observing me, +though for what purpose I could not imagine. Then once more, just as I +was about to enter the Italian garden from a fallow field that hung +slightly above it, a third man appeared as mysteriously as though he +had sprung from the ground, and ran at a sharp dog-trot along the +fence, headed, like the others, for the road. In the third instance +the stranger undoubtedly took pains to hide his face, but he, too, was +well dressed and wore a top-coat and a fedora hat of current style. +</P> + +<P> +I did not know why these gentlemen were ranging the neighborhood or +what object they had in view; but their several appearances had +interested me, and I went on into the house well satisfied that events +of an unusual character were likely to mark my visit to the home of +Miss Octavia Hollister. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +IV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +WE DINE IN THE GUN-ROOM +</H4> + +<P> +Cecilia sat reading alone when I entered the library shortly before the +dinner-hour. She put down her book and we fell into fitful talk. +</P> + +<P> +"I took a walk after tea. I always feel that sunsets are best seen +from the fields; you can't quite do them justice from windows," she +began. +</P> + +<P> +She seemed preoccupied, but this may have been the interpretation of my +conscience, whose twinges reminded me unpleasantly of my precipitation +into the briar bushes at the foot of the pasture, where I had witnessed +her meeting with Wiggins. My admiration gained new levels. Her black +evening gown became her; a band of velvet circled her throat, +emphasizing its firm whiteness. It seemed incredible that I had seen +her so recently, in the filmy dusk, talking with so much earnestness to +Hartley Wiggins. It was my impression, gained from the few sentences I +had overheard by the road, that she did not repulse him, but that some +mysterious, difficult barrier kept them apart. Where, I wondered, was +Wiggins now, and what were to be the further incidents of this singular +affair? +</P> + +<P> +While we waited for Miss Hollister to appear, she continued to speak of +her joy in the hills. It is not every one who can admire a sunset with +sincerity, but she conveyed the spirit of the phenomena that had +attended the lowering of the bright targe of day in terms and tones +that were delightfully natural and convincing. And yet the far-away +look in her eyes suggested inevitably the scene I had witnessed and the +phrases I had caught by the roadside. Wiggins was in her recollection +of the glowing landscape,—I was confident of this; and poor Wiggins +was even now wandering these hills, no doubt, brooding upon his +troubles under the clear October stars. +</P> + +<P> +Dinner was announced the moment Miss Hollister entered, and I walked +out between them. Miss Octavia Hollister was a surprising person, but +in nothing was she so delightfully wayward as in the gowns she wore. +My ignorance of such matters is immeasurable, but I fancy that she +designed her own raiment and that her ideas were thereupon carried out +by a tailor of skill. At the Asolando and when we had met at tea in +her own house, she had worn the severest of tailored gowns, with short +skirt and a coat into whose pockets she was fond of thrusting her +hands. To-night the material was lavender silk trimmed in white, but +the skirt had not lengthened, and over a white silk waist she wore a +kind of cut-away coat that matched the skirt. An aigrette in her +lovely white hair contributed a piquant note to the whole impression. +As we passed down the hall she talked with great animation of the Hague +Tribunal, just then holding a prominent place in the newspapers for +some reason that has escaped me. +</P> + +<P> +"The whole thing is absurd; perfectly absurd! I know of nothing that +would contribute more to human enjoyment than a real war between +Germany and England. The Hague idea is pure sentimentalism,—if +sentimentalism can ever be said to be pure. I will go further and say +that I consider it positively immoral." +</P> + +<P> +This new view of the matter left me stammering. Cecilia, I saw, had no +intention of helping me over these difficult hurdles that were +constantly popping up in my conversations with her aunt. This +delightful old lady in lavender, the mistress of a house whose luxury +and peace were antipodal to any hint of war, continued to baffle me. +She had ordered dinner in the gun-room, but I thought this merely a +turn of her humor; and I was taken aback when she led the way into a +low, heavily raftered room, where electric sconces of an odd type were +thrust at irregular intervals along the walls, which were otherwise +hung with arms of many sorts in orderly combinations. They were not +the litter of antique shops, I saw in a hasty glance, but rifles and +guns of the latest patterns, and beside the sideboard stood a gun-rack +and a cabinet which I assumed contained still other and perhaps +deadlier weapons. At one end of the room, and just behind Miss +Hollister, was a sunburst of swords, which gleamed with a kind of +mockery behind her white head. +</P> + +<P> +The small round table was conventionally set, but this only added to +the grimness of the encompassing arsenal. A bowl of crimson roses in +the centre of the snowy cloth would ordinarily have mitigated the +effect of the grim walls; but I confess that the color reminded me a +little too sombrely of the ugly business for which this steel had been +designed. But for the presence of Miss Cecilia, who was essentially +typical of our twentieth-century American woman, I think I might +readily have yielded to the illusion that I was the guest of some +eccentric chatelaine who had invited me to dine with her in a bastion +of her fortress before ordering me to some chamber of horrors for +execution. +</P> + +<P> +There seemed to be no reason why one of those keen blades on the wall +might not find its way through my ribs between a highly satisfactory +plate of <I>potage à la tortue</I> and a bit of sea-bass that would have +honored any kitchen in the land. No reference was made to the +character of the room; I felt, in fact, that Cecilia rather pleaded +with her eyes that I should make no reference to it. And Miss +Hollister remarked quite casually as though in comment upon my +thoughts:— +</P> + +<P> +"Consistency has buried its thousands and habit its tens of thousands. +We should live, Mr. Ames, for the changes and chances of this troubled +life. Between an opera-box and a villa at Newport many of my best +friends have perished." +</P> + +<P> +"I have thought myself that Thoreau had the right idea,"—I began +hopefully; but she raised her finger warningly. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Ames, the mention of Henry David Thoreau is wholly distasteful to +me. A man who will deliberately choose to whittle lead-pencils for +chipmunks and write a book about a moist sand-pile like Cape Cod +arouses no sympathy in me. And these well-meaning women who are +forever gathering autumn leaves, or who tire you in spring by telling +you they have found the first pussy-willow feathering, and who make all +Nature odious by their general goo-gooings, bore me to death. There is +no such thing possible as the simple life. I give you my word for it +that it is only in the most complex existence that the spirit of man +can thrive." +</P> + +<P> +I am only a chimney-doctor; I have never been able to make any headway +in discussing things æsthetic, sentimental or spiritual with persons of +sound conviction in such matters. A bishop with whom I once roamed the +English cathedrals confessed to me his sincere belief that in the days +of the inquisition the gridiron would have been my rightful portion. I +was fearful lest my hostess should suggest the mediæval church as a +topic, and this I knew would be disastrous. As an abbess she would, I +fancied, have ruled with an iron hand. But with startling abruptness +she put down her fork, and bending her wonderfully direct gaze upon me, +asked a question that caused me to strangle on a bit of asparagus. +</P> + +<P> +"I imagine, Mr. Ames, that you are a member of some of the better clubs +in town. If by any chance you belong to the Hare and Tortoise,—the +name of which has always pleased me,—do you by any chance happen to +enjoy the acquaintance of Mr. Hartley Wiggins?" +</P> + +<P> +Cecilia lifted her head. I saw that she had been as startled as I. It +crossed my mind that a denial of any acquaintance with Wiggins might +best serve him in the circumstances; but I am not, I hope, without a +sense of shame, and I responded promptly:— +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I know him well. We are old friends. I always see a good deal +of him during the winter. His summers are spent usually on his ranch +in the west. We dined together two days ago at the Hare and Tortoise, +just before he left for the west." +</P> + +<P> +"You will pardon me if I say that it is wholly to his credit that he +has forsworn the professions and identified himself with the honorable +calling of the husbandman." +</P> + +<P> +"We met Mr. Wiggins while traveling abroad last summer," interposed +Cecilia, meeting my eyes quite frankly. +</P> + +<P> +"Met him! Did you say met him, Cecilia? On the contrary we found him +waiting for us at the dock the morning we sailed," corrected Miss +Hollister, "and we never lost him a day in three months of rapid +travel. I had never met him before, but I cannot deny that he made +himself exceedingly agreeable. If, as I suspected, he had deliberately +planned to travel on the same steamer with my two nieces, I have only +praise for his conduct, for in these days, Mr. Ames, it warms my heart +to find young men showing something of the old chivalric ardor in their +affairs of the heart." +</P> + +<P> +"I 'm sure Mr. Wiggins made himself very agreeable," remarked Cecilia +colorlessly. +</P> + +<P> +"For myself," retorted Miss Hollister, "I should speak even more +strongly. He repeatedly served us with tact and delicacy; and I recall +with the greatest satisfaction his vigorous chastisement of our courier +in Cologne, where that person was found to have treated us in the most +treacherous manner. He had, in fact, in collusion with an inn-keeper, +connived at the loss of our baggage to delay our departure, even after +I had pronounced the cathedral the greatest architectural monstrosity +in Europe." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Aunt Octavia, you didn't really mean that!" And Cecilia laughed +for the first time. Her color had risen, and her dark eyes lit with +pleasure. +</P> + +<P> +"I had formed so high an opinion of Mr. Wiggins," Miss Octavia +continued, "that I learned with sincerest regret that his ancestors +were Tories and took no part in the struggle for American independence. +There are times when I seriously question the wisdom of the colonists +in breaking with the mother country; but certainly no man of character +in that day could have hesitated as to his proper course." +</P> + +<P> +Then, as though by intention, Miss Hollister dropped upon the smooth +current of our talk a sentence that drove the color from Cecilia's +face. At once the girl was cold again, and I felt embarrassed and +uncomfortable that a friend of mine had been brought into the +conversation to my befuddlement. The situation was trying, but in +spite of this it grew steadily more interesting. +</P> + +<P> +"Hezekiah and Mr. Wiggins were the best of friends," was Miss +Hollister's remark. +</P> + +<P> +Cecilia's eyes were on her plate; but her aunt went on in her blithest +fashion:— +</P> + +<P> +"You may not know that Hezekiah is another niece, Cecilia's sister. +She was named, at my suggestion, for my father, there being no son in +the family, and I trust that so unusual a name in a young girl does not +strike you as indefensible." +</P> + +<P> +"On the contrary, it seems to me wholly refreshing and delightful. As +I recall the Sunday-school of my youth, Hezekiah was a monarch of great +authority, whose animosity toward Sennacherib was justified in the +fullest degree. The very name bristles with spears, and is musical +with the trumpets of Israel. Nothing would make me happier than to +meet the young lady who bears this illustrious name." +</P> + +<P> +"As to your knowledge of ancient history, Mr. Ames," began Miss +Hollister, as she helped herself to the cheese,—sweets, I noted, were +not included in the very ample meal I had enjoyed,—"it is clear that +you were well taught in your youth. I am not surprised, however, for I +should have expected nothing less of a son of the late General Ames of +Hartford. As to meeting my niece Hezekiah, I fear that that is at +present impossible. While Cecilia remains with me, Hezekiah's duty is +to her father, and I must say in all kindness that Hezekiah's ways, +like those of Providence and the custom-house, are beyond my feeble +understanding. In a word, Mr. Ames, Hezekiah is different." +</P> + +<P> +"Hezekiah," added Cecilia with feeling, "is a dear." +</P> + +<P> +"Please don't bring sentimentalism to the table!" cried Miss Hollister. +"Mr. Wiggins once informed me in a moment of forgetfulness,—it was at +Fontainebleau, I remember, when Hezekiah persisted in reminding a +one-armed French colonel who was hanging about that we named cities in +America for Bismarck,—it was there at the inn, that Mr. Wiggins +confided to me his belief that Hezekiah bears a strong resemblance to +the common or domestic peach. As a single peach at that place was +charged in the bill at ten francs, the remark was ill-timed, to say the +least. But Mr. Wiggins was so contrite when I rebuked him, that I +allowed him to pay for our luncheon,—no small matter, indeed, for +Hezekiah's appetite is nothing if not robust." +</P> + +<P> +The table-talk had yielded little light on the subject of Wiggins's +predicament, whatever that might be; but these references to the absent +Hezekiah had set a troop of interrogation points to dancing on the +frontiers of my curiosity. Miss Hollister had given so many turns to +the conversation that I could reach no conclusion as to her feeling +toward Wiggins or Hezekiah Hollister; and as for Cecilia, I was unable +to determine whether she was a prisoner at Hopefield Manor or the +willing and devoted companion of her aunt. +</P> + +<P> +In this bewildered state of mind, while we lingered over our coffee, +the servant appeared with a card for each of the ladies. I saw Cecilia +start as she read the name. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Wiggins! How remarkable that he should have appeared just as we +were speaking of him," said Miss Hollister. "Be sure the gentleman is +comfortable in the library, James. We shall be in at once. Mr. Ames, +you will of course be delighted to meet your friend here, and you will +assist us in dispensing our meagre hospitality." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +V +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE STRANGE BEHAVIOR OF A CHIMNEY +</H4> + +<P> +There was no reason in the world why Hartley Wiggins should not call +upon two ladies living in Westchester County, and I must say that he +appeared to advantage in Miss Hollister's library. +</P> + +<P> +He had got into his evening clothes somewhere, perhaps at a neighboring +inn, or maybe at the house of a friend; for he could not possibly have +motored into town and back since his interview with Cecilia in the +highway. He had impressed the clerk at the Hare and Tortoise with the +idea that he had left New York for a long absence, and he had +apparently camped at the gates of Hopefield to be near Cecilia. +</P> + +<P> +When he had paid his compliments to the ladies, he turned to me with an +almost imperceptible lifting of the brows; but he was cordial enough. +If he was surprised or disappointed at seeing me, his manner did not +betray the feeling. +</P> + +<P> +"Glad to see you, Ames. Rather nice weather, this." +</P> + +<P> +"Even Dakota could n't do better," I affirmed with a grin; but he +ignored the fling. +</P> + +<P> +"It is quite remarkable, Mr. Wiggins, that you should have appeared +just when you did, for we had been speaking of you, and I had been +telling Mr. Ames of our travels abroad and in particular of the +thumping you very properly gave our courier at Cologne. And I shall +not deny that I mentioned also our brief discussion of the peach-crop +at Fontainebleau." +</P> + +<P> +Cecilia stirred restlessly; Wiggins shot a glance of inquiry in my +direction; and I felt decidedly ill at ease. Miss Hollister crossed to +the fireplace and poked the logs. +</P> + +<P> +Just what part Hezekiah Hollister played in the situation was beyond +me. If I had not witnessed Wiggins's clandestine meeting with Cecilia, +matters would have been clearer to my comprehension; but his appearance +at the house, after the colloquy I had overheard from the briar patch, +was in itself inexplicable. Cecilia was a woman, therefore to be +wooed, and yet she had indicated by her words to him that the wooing, +independently of her feeling and inclination, might not go forward with +entire freedom. Miss Hollister's singular references to Hezekiah—a +person about whom my curiosity was now a good deal aroused—added to +the mystery that enfolded the library. +</P> + +<P> +"Our American peaches are not what they were in my youth. Cold storage +destroys the flavor. I have not tasted a decent peach for twenty +years." +</P> + +<P> +This was pretty tame, I admit; but I felt that I must say something. +Responsive to Miss Hollister's energetic prodding, the flames in the +fireplace leaped into the great throat of the chimney with a roar. She +turned, her back to the blaze, and looked upon her guests benignantly. +</P> + +<P> +"If all your flues draw like that one, they are not seriously in need +of doctoring," I remarked, feeling that flues were a safer topic than +the peach-crop. +</P> + +<P> +"Flues are nothing if not erratic," replied Miss Hollister. The +subject did not appear to interest her; nor had she, by the remotest +suggestion, referred to the object of my coming. I had sniffed vainly +in the halls above and below for any trace of the stale smoke which +usually greeted me at once on my arrival at the house of a client. The +air of Hopefield Manor was as sweet as that of a June meadow. Wiggins +remarked to me that I doubtless knew the Manor had been designed by +Pepperton, whom we both knew well. +</P> + +<P> +"This is Pep's masterpiece. He need do nothing better to keep his grip +at the top," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"I consider it a great privilege to be permitted to visit a house +designed by a dear friend and occupied by a lady peculiarly fitted to +appreciate and adorn it." +</P> + +<P> +I thought rather well of this as I spoke the words; but neither Cecilia +nor Wiggins rose to it as I hoped they might. +</P> + +<P> +"You have a neat turn for the direct compliment," said Miss Hollister +promptly. "The house was built, you may not know, for a manufacturer +of umbrellas, who died before he had occupied it, in circumstances I +may later disclose to you; which accounts, Mr. Ames, for that figure of +Cupid under a pink parasol on the drawing-room ceiling. At the first +opportunity I shall remove it, as baby Cupids are irreconcilable with +the militant love-making I admire. I consider umbrellas detestable, +and never carry one when I can command a mackintosh." +</P> + +<P> +"When I 'm on the ranch I wear a slicker," said Wiggins. "It's +bullet-proof, and that I have found at times a decided advantage." +</P> + +<P> +We discussed mackintoshes for at least ten minutes, with far more +sprightliness than I had imagined the subject could evoke. Then Miss +Hollister, after a turn up and down the room, paused beside me. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Ames," she said, "would you care to join me in a game of +billiards? I 'm not in my best form, but I think we might profitably +knock the balls for half an hour." +</P> + +<P> +I acquiesced with alacrity. I assumed it to be Miss Hollister's +purpose to leave Cecilia and Wiggins alone. I should be rendering +Wiggins and Cecilia a service by withdrawing, and I was glad of a +chance to escape. +</P> + +<P> +To my infinite surprise they both protested, not in mere polite murmurs +but with considerable vehemence. +</P> + +<P> +"It's quite cool to-night, and I don't believe you ought to use the +billiard-room until the plumber has fixed the radiator," said Cecilia. +</P> + +<P> +"And if you knew Mr. Ames's game I 'm sure you would n't care to waste +time on him," piped Wiggins, whom I had frequently vanquished in +billiard bouts at the Hare and Tortoise, where, I may say modestly, I +had long been considered one of the most formidable of the club's +players. +</P> + +<P> +Both he and Cecilia had risen, and we stood, I remember, just before +the hearth, during this exchange. At this moment, a singular thing +happened. The fire that had been sweeping in a broad wave-like curve +into the chimney was checked suddenly. I had repeatedly marked the +admirable draught, the facile grace of the flame as it rose and +vanished. The cessation of the draught was unmarked by any of those +premonitory symptoms by which a fire usually gives warning of evil +intentions. The upward current of air had ceased utterly and without +apparent cause. We were all aware of a choking, a gasping in the deep +flue, which could not be accounted for by any natural stoppage incident +to chimneys—the dislodging of masonry, or a packing of soot. The +former was hardly possible and the house was not old enough to make the +latter theory plausible. From my survey of the flue on my arrival in +the afternoon, I judged that this particular chimney had been little +used. +</P> + +<P> +The smoke now rolled out in billows and drove us back from the hearth. +I seized the tongs and poker and began readjusting the logs, without, +however, any hope of correcting a difficulty that lay patently in the +upper regions of the flue itself. The smoke, after a courageous effort +to rise, encountered an obstruction of some sort and ebbed back upon +the hearth and out into the room. My efforts to stop the trouble by +shifting the logs were futile, as I expected them to be, and I +retreated quickly, making, I fear, no very gallant appearance as I +mopped my face and eyes. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-076"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-076.jpg" ALT="I seized the tongs and poker and began readjusting the logs." BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +I seized the tongs and poker and began readjusting the logs. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"Well," exclaimed Miss Hollister, who had rung for a servant to open +the doors and windows, "this is certainly most extraordinary. What +solution do you offer, Mr. Ames?" +</P> + +<P> +"The matter requires investigation. I can't venture an opinion until I +have made a thorough investigation. The night is perfectly quiet and +the wind is hardly responsible. I think we had better abandon the room +until I can solve this riddle in the morning." +</P> + +<P> +The prompt opening of the windows and doors caused the slow dispersion +of the smoke, but the lights in the room still shone dimly as through a +fog. +</P> + +<P> +"It's beastly," ejaculated Wiggins, coughing. "I did n't suppose +Pepperton would put a flue like that into a house. He ought to be +shot." +</P> + +<P> +"It is fortunate," said Miss Hollister, "that Mr. Ames is on the +ground. He now has a case that will test his most acute powers of +diagnosis." +</P> + +<P> +The logs that had burned so brightly before the chimney choked still +held their flames stubbornly, and I had advised against pouring water +upon them, fearing to crack the brick and stonework. We were about to +adjourn to the drawing-room; Miss Hollister and the others had in fact +reached the door, leaving me alone before the hearth. Then, as I stood +half-blinded watching the smoke pour out into the room, and more +puzzled than I had ever been before in any of my employments, the +chimney, with a deep intake of breath, began drawing the smoke upward +again; the flames caught and spread with renewed ardor; and when the +trio still loitering in the hall returned in answer to my exclamation +of surprise, the flue had recovered its composure and was behaving in a +sane and normal manner. +</P> + +<P> +There is, I imagine, nothing pertaining to the life of man (unless it +be rival climates, motor-cars or pianos) that so inspires incompetent, +irrelevant and immaterial criticism as wayward fireplaces. It is part +of my business to listen respectfully to opinions, to receive with an +appearance of credulity the theories of others; and those advanced in +Miss Hollister's library were not below the average to which I was +accustomed. +</P> + +<P> +"A swallow undoubtedly fell into the chimney-pot and then got itself +out again," suggested Cecilia. +</P> + +<P> +"The logs must have been wet. The sap had n't dried out yet," proposed +Wiggins. +</P> + +<P> +"The wood was as dry as tinder," averred Miss Hollister, not without +irritation. "And one swallow does not make a summer or a chimney +smoke. It must have been a changing current of air. I was reading a +book on ballooning the other day, and it is remarkable how the air +currents change." +</P> + +<P> +"That is quite possible, as the air cools rapidly after sunset at this +season, and that is bound to have an effect on the quality and +resistance of the atmosphere," I replied sagely. +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps," suggested Miss Hollister, with one of those flashes of +animation that were so delightful in her, "perhaps it was a ghost! +Will you tell us, Mr. Ames, whether in your experience you have ever +known a chimney ghost?" +</P> + +<P> +As I had no opinion of my own as to what had caused the chimney's brief +aberration, I was glad to follow Miss Hollister's lead. +</P> + +<P> +"I have had several experiences with ghosts," I began, "though I should +not like you to think that I profess any special genius for the +analysis of psychical phenomena. But there was a house at Shinnecock +that was reputed to be haunted. The living-room chimney behaved +damnably. The house was one of Buffington's. Buffington, you know, +was quite capable of building a house and omitting any stairway. We +used to say at the club that he ought to have specialized in +fire-engine houses, where the men don't use stairways but slide down a +pole. Well, the living-room chimney in this particular house could n't +be made to draw with a team of elephants, and it had also the +reputation of being haunted. Strange flutings of the weirdest and most +distressing kind were often heard at night. The owner gave up in +despair and moved out, turning the house over to me. After eliminating +all other possibilities, I decided that the piping spook must be +related to the disorder in the chimney. It served two fireplaces, and +I proceeded to knock the kinks out of it so it did n't tie knots in a +plumb-line as at first; but, believe me, when it stopped smoking it +still whistled, in the most fantastical fashion. I was living in the +house, with only the servants about, and for a week gave my whole +thought to this flue. The ghostly flutist was an amateur, but he tried +his hand at every sort of tune, from 'Sally in our Alley' to the jewel +song in Faust. The whistling did n't begin till nearly midnight, and +continued usually for about an hour. I tried in every way to lure him +into the open, and I fell downstairs one night as I crept about in the +dark trying to trace the sound. And to what palpable and mundane +source do you suppose I traced that ghost?" +</P> + +<P> +"I never should guess," murmured Cecilia, "unless it was merely the +weird whistling of the wind." +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing so poetical, I'm sorry to confess. It was the butler! In his +nightly cups his soul inclined to music, and being a timid soul, +fearful of the cynical tongues of the other servants, he crawled into +the ash-dump in the cellar, which communicated with the several +fireplaces above, and there indulged himself gently upon the tuneful +reed. The night I caught him he was breathing the wild strains of +Brunhilde's Battle-Cry into the tube, and it was shuddersome, I can +tell you! I took it upon myself to discharge him on the spot, and the +grateful owner returned the next day." +</P> + +<P> +"The presence of a ghost in this house would give me the greatest +pleasure," declared Miss Hollister, who had listened intently to my +recital. "I should look upon a ghost's appearance at Hopefield Manor +as a great compliment. If any reputable, decent ghost should by any +chance take up his residence in this house, I should give him every +encouragement." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Hollister seemed to have forgotten the proposed game of billiards. +The chimney's lawless demonstration had, in fact, given a new turn to +the evening. We discussed ghosts for half an hour, and then, without +having enjoyed any opportunity for a single private word with Cecilia, +Wiggins rose to leave. He shook hands all around and bowed from the +door. It was in my mind to follow, making a pretext of walking with +him to the station or of helping him find his car; but nothing in his +good-night to me encouraged such attentions, and as I pondered, the +outer door closed upon my irresolution. +</P> + +<P> +At the stroke of ten Miss Hollister rose and excused herself. "We +breakfast at eight, Mr. Ames. I trust the hour does not conflict with +your habits." +</P> + +<P> +I assured her that the hour was wholly agreeable, and she gave me her +hand with great dignity. +</P> + +<P> +When I turned toward Cecilia she had moved to a seat close by the +hearth and was gazing dreamily into the fire, now a bed of glowing +coals. +</P> + +<P> +"It was odd," I remarked. +</P> + +<P> +"You mean the chimney?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. It was quite unaccountable. I confess that I never knew a +chimney's mood to change so abruptly." +</P> + +<P> +She sat silent for several minutes, and then she lifted her head and +her eyes met mine. +</P> + +<P> +"Pardon me, Mr. Ames, but did my aunt ask you here to examine the +chimneys? I did n't quite understand. We have been here only a week; +the weather has been warm, and I believe this fire had not been lighted +before to-day. You will pardon my frankness, but I can't quite +understand why my aunt invited you here if you came professionally. I +thought when you appeared this afternoon that you were a guest—nothing +more—or less." +</P> + +<P> +"You had heard nothing of any trouble with the fireplaces? Then I am +in the dark as much as you. As I understood it, I was called here to +examine the flues; but now that I think of it, she did not say +explicitly that her chimneys were behaving badly, though that was of +course implied. I naturally assumed that she summoned me here in my +professional capacity. I was a stranger to your aunt; she would hardly +have invited me otherwise." +</P> + +<P> +She turned again to the fire as though referring to it for counsel. +Her perplexity was no greater than my own. It was certainly an +extraordinary experience to be invited to a strange house where my +services had not been needed, and to find that an apparently sound +chimney had begun to smoke at once as though in mockery of my presence. +</P> + +<P> +"I imagine, however, that your aunt acts a good deal on impulse. Her +asking me here may have been only a whim." +</P> + +<P> +"Please don't imagine that your coming has not been agreeable to me," +Cecilia protested. "My aunt is quite capable of inviting a stranger to +the house. She met you, I believe, at the Asolando. I hope you +understand that it is only because I am in deep trouble, Mr. Ames, +trouble of the gravest nature, that I have ventured to speak to you in +this way of my aunt, for whom I have all respect and affection." +</P> + +<P> +She had never, I was sure, been lovelier than at this moment. Her eyes +filled, but she lifted her head proudly. Whatever the trouble might be +I was sorry for it on her own account; and if it involved Hartley +Wiggins my sympathy went out to him also. On an impulse I spoke of him. +</P> + +<P> +"I was surprised to meet Hartley Wiggins here. He 's a dear friend of +mine, you know. I thought he had gone to his ranch. He left the Hare +and Tortoise very abruptly a few nights ago just after we had dined +together. He must be stopping somewhere in the neighborhood." +</P> + +<P> +"It's quite possible. And there's an inn, you know. I fancy he drove +over from there." +</P> + +<P> +"I hadn't thought of that; the Prescott Arms, I suppose you mean." +</P> + +<P> +She nodded, but she was clearly not interested in me, and when I found +myself failing dismally to divert her thoughts to cheerfuller channels, +I rose and bade her good-night. +</P> + +<P> +The servant who had previously attended me appeared promptly when I +reached my room, bearing a tray, with biscuits and a bottle of ale. He +gave me an envelope addressed in a hand I already knew as Miss +Octavia's, and I opened and read:— +</P> + +<P> +"The following I either detest or distrust, so kindly refrain from +mentioning them while you are a guest of Hopefield Manor:— +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 5%"> +Automobiles.<BR> +Mashed Potatoes.<BR> +Whiskers.<BR> +Chopin's Concerto in E Minor (op. 11).<BR> +Bishop's Coadjutor.<BR> +Limericks.<BR> +Cats.<BR> +<BR> + OCTAVIA HOLLISTER."<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +I absorbed this with a glass of ale. There were seven items, I noted, +and I had no serious quarrel with her attitude toward any of them; but +just what these matters had to do with me or my presence in her house I +could not determine. She had referred to me in the note as a guest—I +had noted that; and I did know, moreover, that Miss Octavia Hollister +possessed a quaint and delicate humor; and I looked forward with the +pleasantest anticipations to our further meetings. +</P> + +<P> +Before I slept I threw up my window and stepped out upon a narrow +balcony that afforded a capital view of the fields and woods to the +east. The night was fine, with the sky bright with stars and moon. As +my eyes dropped from the horizon to the near landscape, I saw a man +perched on a knoll in the midst of a corn-field. He stood as rigid as +a sentry on duty, or like a forlorn commander, counting the spears of +his tattered battalions. I was not sure that he saw me, for the +balcony was slightly shadowed, but at any rate, he was sharply outlined +to my vision. His derby hat and overcoat gave him an odd appearance as +he stood brooding above the corn. Then he vanished suddenly, though, +as he retired toward the highway, I followed him for some time by the +shaking and jerking of the corn-stalks. +</P> + +<P> +I lay awake far into the night, considering the events of the day. Of +these the curious stoppage of the library chimney was the least +interesting. I doubted whether it would ever recur. The love-affair +of Hartley Wiggins was, however, a matter of importance to me, his +friend, and I determined to make every effort to see him the next day +and learn the exact status of his affair with Cecilia Hollister. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +VI +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I DELIVER A MESSAGE +</H4> + +<P> +I was aroused at six o'clock the next morning by the sound of +gun-shots, and springing out of bed I beheld, in an open pasture beyond +the stable-yard, the indomitable Miss Hollister engaged in the pleasing +pastime of breaking clay pigeons with a fowling-piece. Her Swedish +maid stood by with a formidable pad of paper, keeping score. A boy +pulled the trap for her, and she threw up her gun and blazed away with +a practised hand. Her small, slight, tense figure, awaiting the +launching of the target, the quick up-bring of the gun as she sighted, +and the pause, following the firing of the shot, in which she bent +forward rigidly watching the result, were features of a picture which I +would not have missed. My eye could not follow the curving disc in its +flight, but when the shot told, the bursting clay made a little patch +of dust in the air that was plainly visible from where I sat. Beyond +the stable-roofs, on a broad stretch of pasture whose aftermath made a +green field about her, and against a background of the more distant +woods' tapestry, Miss Octavia Hollister was a figure to admire. And I +will write it down here and be done with it, that it has been my good +fortune to know many delightful women, but I have never known one more +interesting or charming than Miss Octavia Hollister. The spirit of +deathless youth was in her heart; and youth's gay pennants fluttered +about her, as the reports of her gun fell cheerily upon the crisp +morning air, a rebuke and a challenge to all indolent souls. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-088"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-088.jpg" ALT="She threw up her gun and blazed away with a practised hand." BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +She threw up her gun and blazed away with a practised hand. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +I made myself presentable as quickly as possible and went forth to +report to her. She nodded pleasantly as I greeted her immediately +after she had scored a capital shot. A second gun was produced, and I +saw that it was not without satisfaction that she observed my lack of +prowess. One out of five was the best I could do, whereas she smashed +three with the greatest ease. +</P> + +<P> +On alternate mornings, she informed me, she shot glass balls with a +rifle, a sport which she declared to be superior to pigeon-shooting in +the severity of its demand upon the nerve and eye. +</P> + +<P> +"If I had known you would be up so early I should have sent coffee to +your room," she remarked as we walked toward the house. "Very likely +your lack of luck with the birds is attributable entirely to the +impoverished state of your stomach." +</P> + +<P> +Breakfast was served on a delightful sun-porch that I had not before +seen. Cecilia appeared promptly, having in fact been gathering fall +flowers for some time, I judged, from the considerable armful of +chrysanthemums, asters, dahlias and marigolds, which we found her +arranging for the table. She seemed in excellent spirits, and greeted +us most amiably. +</P> + +<P> +"I heard the artillery booming and thought an army had descended. It's +a great regret to me, Mr. Ames, that I have never been able to make any +headway at the traps. I suffer from chronic and incurable gun-shyness. +I 'm sorry archery has gone out. I think I might have done better with +the long bow." +</P> + +<P> +"Pinkle!" exclaimed Miss Hollister disdainfully. "I cured myself of +gun-shyness easily enough by having the gardener follow me about +whenever I took my daily walks, firing a gun at irregular intervals +just behind me. I was threatened with deafness when I began, but the +agitation of my tympanums by the explosions of my gun has corrected the +difficulty. I have mentioned my discovery of this remedy to a +distinguished aurist, and he is preparing a paper on the subject—not, +however, without my permission—which he expects to read shortly before +one of the most learned societies in Europe. Cecilia, the chops are +overdone again; please remind me to speak to the cook about it. If it +were not that he is so expert in detecting spurious steam-mill +corn-meal, which is constantly sold as a substitute for the Boydville +water-ground article, I should discharge him for this. An ill-broiled +chop can do much to shake one's faith in human nature. If I wanted to +eat grilled patent leather I should order it." +</P> + +<P> +In spite of her sharp observations it was quite clear to me that Miss +Hollister's was the gentlest and sweetest of natures. I fully believed +that her whims were the honest expression of a revolt against the +tedious and conventional, and nothing in my later acquaintance +disturbed this opinion. It was her privilege to do as she liked, and +if she preferred cracking clay saucers with a shot-gun to knitting or +darning stockings or gossiping, it was no one's business. +</P> + +<P> +The mail arrived and was placed by her plate before we left the table. +She opened first a bulky envelope containing cuttings from a clipping +bureau, and she mused aloud upon these as she read. +</P> + +<P> +"This persistent story of a sunken galleon off the Bolivian coast +sounds plausible, but I fear it is the work of some bright young +journalist. Our minister in that benighted country does n't take any +stock in it. I had a cable from him yesterday. If he had given the +story credence I should have gone down at once with a steamer and crew +of divers. The imaginative young newspaper men continue romancing, +however; and it costs me five cents a clipping." +</P> + +<P> +She next opened a letter that roused her to vigorous declamation. +</P> + +<P> +"Cecilia," she began, "here is a letter from that Mrs. Stanford we met +in Berne. She encloses a card that indicates her wish to be called +Mrs. Appleby now, having, I believe, spent a few months since our +meeting in one of our American States where the marital tie readily +evaporates, and shaken Stanford, whom I have heard spoken of in the +highest terms by persons of character. We live in an era of horseless +carriages, wireless telegraphy, husbandless wives and wifeless +husbands. I have hit upon a formula which I am tempted to utilize +hereafter when I meet husbandless women. When they are introduced I +shall ask:— +</P> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +Shaken,<BR> +Or taken?<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +signifying in the first instance a loss by way of Nevada, or, in the +second, through the pearlier gates of that Paradise which is the hope +of us all. Mr. Ames, as the butler has gone to sleep in the pantry, +you will kindly pass the salt." +</P> + +<P> +She had handed Cecilia a number of letters, which the girl opened and +then to my surprise meekly turned over to her aunt. Miss Hollister +surveyed them critically. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought," she remarked, "that that young Henderson who was so +attentive to you at Madrid was an impostor, and this note settles the +matter. He flirted outrageously with Hezekiah behind your back. He +asks if he may call upon you here. If he were the nephew of Colonel +Abner Henderson of Roanoke, as he represented himself to be, he would +not ask if he might call upon you, but would have appeared at once in +his proper person to pay his addresses. An unchivalrous and wobbly +character, who evidently expects you to make the advances. But such +are the youth of our time. And besides, Cecilia, his stationery leaves +much to be desired. As for these other gentlemen we need not discuss +them. Their actions must speak for them." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Hollister, having thus dismissed her niece's correspondents, rose +and led the way to the library. Cecilia seemed in no wise depressed by +her aunt's fling at Mr. Henderson, whoever he might be, but threw the +notes upon the flames that blazed merrily in the fireplace. +</P> + +<P> +I suggested immediately that as I had come to Hopefield Manor to +inspect the flues I should now be about my business; but to my surprise +Miss Hollister evinced no interest whatever in the matter. Her tone +and manner implied that the condition of her chimneys was wholly +negligible. +</P> + +<P> +"There is no haste, Mr. Ames. I have suffered all my life from the +ill-considered and hurried work of professional men. Even the +clergy—and I have enjoyed the acquaintance of many—are quite reckless +in giving opinions. I once asked the Bishop of Waxahaxie—was it +Waxahaxie, Cecilia, or Tallahassee?—well, it does n't matter +anyhow—whether he honestly believed there are no women angels. He +replied with unusual frankness for one in holy orders that he did n't +know, but added that he was sure there are angel women. Just for that +impertinence I cut in two my subscription to his cathedral +building-fund. When I ask an expert opinion of an educated person I +don't intend to be put off with mere persiflage. And to return to my +chimneys, I beg that you give me the result of your most serious +deliberations. At this hour I ride; Cecilia, will you dress +immediately and accompany me?" +</P> + +<P> +She disappeared at once and I stared mutely after her. I am by no +means an idler, and this cool indifference to the value of my time +would ordinarily have enraged me; but I believe I laughed, and when I +turned to Cecilia I found her smiling. +</P> + +<P> +"I 'm glad, Mr. Ames, that you are a person of humor. My aunt's +conduct verifies what I said to you last night—that the flues in this +house have given us no trouble; that they have indeed had little chance +to do so in the short time we have spent here. It is true that this +one acted queerly last night, and I have wondered about its temporary +sulkiness a good deal. It will be well, of course, for you to go over +it, and all the others in the house. It is no joke that my aunt is a +believer in thoroughness, and one of these days, when she is ready to +talk of chimneys, she will subject you to a most rigid examination." +</P> + +<P> +"One of these days? Why, I have looked at the time-table, and it is my +present intention to take the 12:03 into town. I have appointments at +my office for the afternoon. I assure you, Miss Hollister, that I 'm a +man of engagements, particularly at this season." +</P> + +<P> +I remembered what Jewett had told me of Fortner, the painter, and his +detention at Newport by Miss Octavia Hollister. I had no intention of +being immured in any such fashion, and I was about to protest further +when Cecilia took a step toward me, and after a glance at the door +spoke in a low tone and with great earnestness. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Ames, I have every reason to believe that you are a gentleman, and +in that confident belief I 'm going to ask a favor of you. You have +said that you know Mr. Hartley Wiggins well." +</P> + +<P> +"I know no man better. You might not have inferred it from his manner +last night, but he was undoubtedly surprised and embarrassed by my +presence, and did not act quite like himself."' +</P> + +<P> +"I think I understand the cause of that. If I should ask you to see +him to-day and give him a message for me, could you do so?" +</P> + +<P> +"It will be an honor to serve you; and a very simple matter, as I +should see him on my own account if he is still in the neighborhood." +</P> + +<P> +"He is doubtless at the Prescott Arms. My message is a verbal one. +Please urge him not to make any effort to see me, and not to call here +again. But at the same time, as the chimney smoked just as we were +about to be left alone last night, I think—I think"—she hesitated a +moment—"You may say that his interests have not been jeopardized by +his temerity in calling." +</P> + +<P> +In her pause before concluding this curious commission her eyes +searched mine deeply, and I felt that she had not lightly entrusted me +with this singular errand. Her dark eyes held mine an instant after +she had spoken; then she smiled, and her face showed relief. +</P> + +<P> +"Ask for anything you want. Aunt Octavia despises motors, so there 's +no car here, but you will find plenty of horses and traps. Order +whatever pleases you. I shall expect to meet you at dinner if not at +luncheon—and so"—she smiled again—"will Aunt Octavia." +</P> + +<P> +She nodded to me from the door, and I heard her running lightly +upstairs. +</P> + +<P> +Left to my own devices I rang the bell and ordered the library fire +extinguished and the hearth cleaned. This required a little time; but +the house man obeyed me readily, and soon, clad in my professional +overalls and jumper, I was going carefully over the flue whose behavior +had been so unaccountable the previous night. Guided by the servant I +inspected the three fireplaces in the upper chambers that were served +by flues in this chimney and finally dropped my torch and plumb-line +from the chimney-pot. Never in all my experience had I seen better +flues; but remembering my ghost at Shinnecock, I had the ashes thrown +out of the dump in the cellar and found the chute in perfect order. I +learned by inquiry that the other flues worked perfectly, but I +nevertheless scrutinized them carefully. My freedom of the house +afforded an excellent opportunity for a study of its beautiful +construction. It was modern in every sense, with no dark, mysterious +corners in which goblins might lurk. I prowled about with increasing +admiration for Pepperton, and with a deepening sense of my own failure +in the art which he adorned. +</P> + +<P> +My professional labors were finished. I was quite ready for Miss +Hollister's most searching inquiries. As for the library flue, I had +decided that a little care in piling the logs in the hearth would +obviate the possibility of any recurrence of the difficulty. And I +thereupon hurried to my room, and after a tub (my vocation encouraged +frequent tubbing) chose from the stable a neat trap for one horse. +Thus equipped I set out to find Wiggins. +</P> + +<P> +The Prescott Arms is an inn that sprang into being with the advent of +motoring. The tourist is advised of his approach to it by signs swung +at the crossways, and its plaster and timber walls are in plain sight +from one of the excellent state roads. Gasoline and other liquids are +offered there; one may have tea or an ampler meal on short notice; and +a few guests may be lodged in case of necessity. I remembered it well, +having several times found it a haven on motor-flights with friends. +As I drove into the entrance I saw Wiggins pacing the long veranda. He +waved a hand and came out to meet me, and when I had rid myself of the +trap he suggested that we take a walk. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-099"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-099.jpg" ALT="As I drove into the entrance." BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +As I drove into the entrance. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +His manner was not cordial, and he wore the haggard look of a man on +bad terms with his pillow. I attributed his appearance to +preoccupation with his love-affair. When we had withdrawn a little way +from the inn he turned on me sharply. +</P> + +<P> +"Well?" he demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," I laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, you needn't take that tone about it! Your being here is something +that requires explanation; and your being <I>there</I>"—he flung out his +arm toward Hopefield Manor—"your presence there is not a laughing +matter." +</P> + +<P> +"My dear Wiggins, I came here in a spirit of friendship, and you treat +me like a pickpocket. I must say that if you had not acted like a clam +the other night at the club, but had told me what was in the wind, we +might not be meeting now like ancient enemies instead of old and +intimate friends." +</P> + +<P> +He vouchsafed no reply, but threw himself down under a scarlet maple +and began to whittle a stick, while I went on with my story. +</P> + +<P> +"I met Miss Octavia Hollister in the Asolando the day after our last +dinner at the club. I had dropped into the tea-room merely to look at +the place again. I had never seen her before in all my life. She is a +whimsical old lady—but a lady, you must admit that—and we exchanged +cards. On learning my occupation she at once declared that I must come +up here to look at her chimneys. She made an appointment by mail for +yesterday afternoon. It is not my fault that she treated me like a +guest, or that she introduced me of necessity to her niece Cecilia. +And now I have finished my work, and after I have made my report I +shall probably not meet her again. As for Miss Cecilia Hollister, I +can only say, my dear Wiggins, that she is a rarely beautiful woman, +and that if you wish to marry her you have my very best wishes for your +success and happiness." +</P> + +<P> +"It struck me that you were pretty well established there," he blurted. +"I confess that I took it for granted you were not there wholly on a +professional errand; and I won't deny, Ames, that I was not pleased to +see you." +</P> + +<P> +"You honor me in assuming that I might aspire to the hand of so +splendid a woman as Cecilia Hollister; but, my dear Wiggins, I tell you +I never laid eyes on her until last night." +</P> + +<P> +"But you had been to the Asolando," he persisted, hacking away doggedly +at his stick. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course I had. I told you I had. I told you the whole story. But +I did not see Cecilia Hollister there. She was n't there! I fancy +that after you saw her there last spring and became infatuated with her +and followed her to Europe instead of going to Dakota to harvest your +blooming wheat—after that bit of history she never returned to the +Asolando. Your lack of frankness in all this has pained me. And you +left it for a gossiping chap like Jewett to tell me the whole story. +And to cap your duplicity you sneaked out of the club the other night +while Jewett was talking to me and let the club people think you were +bound for your ranch. I call it rather low down, Wiggins, after all +the years we have known each other. My slate is clean; how about +yours?" +</P> + +<P> +He threw the stick at a sparrow whose chirp irritated him from a stone +fence beyond us, and turned toward me a countenance on which dejection, +humiliation, and chagrin were written large. +</P> + +<P> +"Damn it all!" he bellowed, "I believe I 'm losing my mind. I don't +know what I 'm doing. That old woman up there is responsible for all +this. She 's as crazy as a March hare,—crazier! And she 's made a +prisoner of that girl. I tell you Cecilia Hollister is the grandest +girl in the world." +</P> + +<P> +"Go it, son! Those descendants of Cæsar's legions at work in the road +down there are pausing to listen. Try to affect calmness if you don't +feel it. I agree to all you say of Miss Cecilia. And please get it +into your noddle that I have no intention of becoming your rival for +her hand. But I must beg of you also not to speak in such terms of her +aunt. She 's the most delightful woman I ever met." +</P> + +<P> +"Mad, I tell you, quite mad!" +</P> + +<P> +"Wise,—with the most beautiful wisdom; you simply don't understand +her." +</P> + +<P> +"I know all I want to about her. If she were not insane she would not +build a wall of mystery about her niece and keep me camping out here +not knowing where I stand. I tell you, Ames, that woman is a +malevolent being; she 's perfectly fiendish." +</P> + +<P> +There is no way of answering a man in this humor save by laughter; and +I laughed long and loud, to the consternation of the Italian +road-laborers who were now swallowing their luncheons a short distance +away from us. +</P> + +<P> +Wiggins sulked awhile and then addressed me seriously. +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't tell you I was going abroad, because the situation made +explanations difficult. I could hardly tell you that I was about to +race over Europe after a waitress I had seen in a tea-room. You 're +always so confoundedly suspicious. It would have an odd sound even now +if she were—well, if she were a waitress instead of what you know her +to be. And my animosity toward Miss Octavia Hollister is due to the +fact that after I had been as courteous to her all summer long as I +could, and thought myself tolerably established in her mind as a decent +person and a gentleman, she suddenly shuts Cecilia up in that +house,—bought it on purpose, I fancy,—and Cecilia herself is +compelled to take on an air of mystery, warning me to keep away, +suggesting the darkest possibilities, but giving me no hint whatever of +the reason for her conduct." +</P> + +<P> +"Let us confine ourselves to Miss Octavia for a moment. While you were +acting as cavalier to her party abroad she was friendly; then she +suddenly changed. Now there must be some explanation of that." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, for one thing, she flew off at a tangent about my ancestors. We +were in Berlin on the Fourth of July and got to talking about the +American revolution. She asked me what my people had done for the +patriotic cause. The painful fact is that most of them were Tories; +but my great-grandfather broke with his father and brothers, joined +Washington's army, and fought through the whole business. But to save +the feelings of the rest of them, who went to England till it was all +over, he changed his name. There's no mention of him in the war +records anywhere. I've had experts working on it, but they can't find +any trace of him. He was greatly embittered by the estrangement from +his people, and though he had a farm in this very neighborhood +somewhere—I 've thought sometime I 'd look it up and try to get hold +of it—he never mentioned his military experiences even to his own +children. Usually Miss Hollister changes front if you give her time. +I've heard her say that we'd have been better off if we'd never broken +with England; but she persists in prodding that weak place in my armor." +</P> + +<P> +"That's very dark, Wiggy. If she keeps it up you'll have to dig up +your great-grandfather someway. The spiritualists might call him on +long distance. But let us turn to Miss Cecilia. I don't for a moment +believe that she is a victim of ancestor worship. The perambulator +rampant adorns the Hollister shield to the exclusion of everything +else. From what you say Cecilia has not repelled you; on the other +hand she has frankly given you to understand that you must not press +your suit at this time for reasons she sees fit to withhold. A little +more patience, a little calm deliberation and less violent language, +and in due course the girl is yours. Now what do you fancy is the +cause of Cecilia's abrupt change of attitude?" +</P> + +<P> +He refused to meet my eyes, but turned away as though to conceal an +embarrassment whose cause I could not surmise. When he spoke it was in +a voice husky with emotion. +</P> + +<P> +"Am I a cad? Am I beneath the contempt of decent people?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's possible, Wiggy, that you are. Go on with it." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you know," he began diffidently, "Cecilia has a sister." +</P> + +<P> +I grinned, but his scowl brought me to myself again. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. And her name is Hezekiah. The name pleases me." +</P> + +<P> +"She was with Miss Octavia in her gallop over Europe, so I saw a good +deal of her necessarily. She is younger than Cecilia; she's a good +deal of a kid,—the sort that never grows up, you know." +</P> + +<P> +"Just like her aunt Octavia!" +</P> + +<P> +"Bah! Don't mention that woman. Hezekiah is a very pretty girl; and I +suppose,—well, when you are thrown with a girl that way, seeing her +constantly"— +</P> + +<P> +I clapped my hand on his knee as the light began to dawn upon me. +</P> + +<P> +"You old rascal, you don't need to add a single word! I dare say you +are guilty. I can see it in your eye. After waiting till you reached +years of discretion before beginning an attack upon womankind, you +began mowing them down in platoons. So they come running now that you +'ve got a start. Oh, Wiggy, and I believed you immune! And you 're +trying to drive 'em tandem." +</P> + +<P> +The thing was funny, knowing Wiggins as I did, and I gave expression to +my mirth; but his fierce demeanor quickly brought me back to the +serious contemplation of his difficulty. +</P> + +<P> +"That, you shameless wretch, would be a sufficient reason for Miss +Octavia's aloofness,—your double-faced dealing with her nieces? You +confirm my impression that she is a wise woman. And Cecilia, I take +it, may be deeply embarrassed by her sister's infatuation for you. You +certainly have made a tangle of things, you heart-wrecker, you +conscienceless deceiver! But where, may I ask, does this Hezekiah keep +herself?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, she's with her father. They have a bungalow over the hills there, +several miles from Hopefield Manor." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I hope you are no longer toying with her affections. Of course +you don't see her any more?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well," he mumbled, "I did see her this morning. But I could n't help +it. It was the merest chance. I met her in the road when I was out +taking a walk. She 's always turning up,—she's the most unaccountable +young person." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose, Wiggy, that if you stand in the road and Miss Hezekiah +Hollister strolls by on her way to market, you fancy that she is +pursuing you. As Miss Octavia has well said, this is not a chivalrous +age. I 'm deeply disappointed in you. Your conduct and your attitude +toward this trusting young girl are disgraceful." +</P> + +<P> +He rose and flung up his arms despairingly. It was much easier to +laugh at Wiggins than to be angry at him; but I recalled the message +which Cecilia had entrusted to me, and this, I thought, might give him +some comfort. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Cecilia asked me this morning to say to you that you must not try +to see her again; you must keep away from the house." +</P> + +<P> +This obviously increased his dejection. +</P> + +<P> +"But," I added, "I was to say that she thought nothing had yet occurred +to interfere with your ambitions, as you were not permitted to see her +alone last night. The chimney, you may remember, began playing pranks +just at the moment when Miss Hollister and I were about to adjourn to +the billiard-room, so a tête-à-tête between you and Cecilia was +impossible." +</P> + +<P> +"She told you to see me?" +</P> + +<P> +"She certainly did. I confess that my message does n't seem luminous, +but I have a feeling that she meant to be kind. It may be that she is +giving you time to disentangle yourself from the delectable Hezekiah's +meshes. I can't elucidate; I merely convey information. But answer +honestly if you can: has Cecilia ever by word or act refused you?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," he replied grimly; "she 's never given me the chance!" +</P> + +<P> +He asked me to luncheon, and on the way back to the inn, after +inquiring my plans for returning to town, he proposed that I delay my +departure until the following day. What he wanted, and he put it +bluntly, was a friend at court, and as I had seemingly satisfied him of +my entire good faith and of my devotion to his interests, he begged +that I prolong my stay in Miss Hollister's house, giving as my excuse +the condition of the chimneys of Hopefield Manor. He brushed aside my +plea of other engagements and appealed to our old friendship. He was +taking his troubles hard, and I felt that he really needed counsel and +support in the involved state of his affairs. I did not see how my +continued presence under Miss Hollister's roof could materially assist +him, and the thought of remaining there when there was no work to be +done was repugnant to my sense of professional honor; but he was so +persistent that I finally yielded. +</P> + +<P> +While we ate luncheon I sought by every means to divert his thoughts to +other channels. After we were seated in the dining-room four other men +followed, exercising considerable care in placing themselves as far +from one another as possible. A few moments later a motor hummed into +the driveway, and we heard its owner ordering his chauffeur to return +to town and hold himself subject to telephone call. This latest +arrival appeared shortly in the dining-room, and surveying the rest of +us with a disdainful air, sought a table in the remotest corner of the +room. Others appeared, until eight in all had entered. The presence +of these men at this hour, their air of aloofness, and the care they +exercised in isolating themselves, interested me. They appeared to be +gentlemen; they were, indeed, suggestive of the ampler metropolitan +world; and one of them was unmistakably a foreigner. +</P> + +<P> +While Wiggins appeared to ignore them, I was conscious that he reviewed +the successive arrivals with every manifestation of contempt. One of +these glum gentlemen seemed familiar; I could not at once recall him, +but something in his manner teased my memory for a moment before I +placed him. Then it dawned upon me that he was the third man I had met +in the field overhanging the garden after my eavesdropping experience +the day before. I thought it as well, however, not to mention this +fact, or to speak of the man I had seen so grimly posted in the midst +of the cornfield. I was an observer, a looker-on, at Hopefield, and my +immediate business was the collecting of information. +</P> + +<P> +"Will you kindly tell me, Wiggy, who these strange gentlemen are and +just what has brought them here at this hour? They seem greatly +preoccupied, and the last one, in particular, surveyed you with a +murderous eye. If we could be translated to some such inn as this in +the environs of Paris, I should conclude that a duel was imminent and +that these gentlemen were assembling to meet after their coffee +to-morrow morning for an affair of honor." +</P> + +<P> +"I know them; they are guests of the inn. Most of them were more or +less companions in our procession across Europe last summer. The one +in the tan suit is Henderson; you must have heard of him. The short +dark chap of atrabilous countenance is John Stewart Dick, who pretends +to be a philosopher. As for the others"— +</P> + +<P> +He dismissed them with a jerk of the head. My wits struggled with his +explanation. It is my way to wish to reduce information to plain terms. +</P> + +<P> +"Are these gentlemen, then, your rivals for the hand of Miss Cecilia +Hollister? If so, they are a solemn band of suitors, I must confess." +</P> + +<P> +"You have hit it, Ames. They are suitors, assembled from all parts of +the world." +</P> + +<P> +"Nice-looking fellows, except the chap with the monocle, who has just +ordered rather more liquor than a gentleman should drink at this hour." +</P> + +<P> +"That is Lord Arrowood. I have feared at times that Miss Octavia +favored him." +</P> + +<P> +"Possibly, but not likely. But how long is this thing going to last? +If you fellows are going to hang on here until Miss Cecilia Hollister +has chosen one of you for her husband, I shudder for your nerves. I +imagine that any one of these gentlemen is likely to begin shooting +across his plate at any minute. Such a situation would become +intolerable very quickly if I were in the game and forced to lodge +here." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope," replied Wiggins with heat, "that you don't imagine these +fellows can crowd me out! I 've paid for a month's lodging in advance, +and if you will stand by me I 'm going to win." +</P> + +<P> +"Spoken like a man, my dear Wiggins! You may count on me to the sweet +or bitter end, even if I pull down all the superb chimneys with which +Pepperton adorned that house up yonder." +</P> + +<P> +He silently clasped my hand. A little later I telephoned from the inn +to my office explaining my absence and instructing my assistant to +visit several pressing clients; and I instructed the valet at the Hare +and Tortoise to send me a week's supply of linen and an odd suit or two. +</P> + +<P> +At about three o'clock I left Wiggins in first-rate spirits and set out +on my return to Hopefield Manor. I felt the eyes of the eight other +suitors, who were scattered at intervals along the verandah, glued to +my back as I drove out of the inn yard. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +VII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +NINE SILK HATS CROSS A STILE +</H4> + +<P> +A girl in a white sweater sat on a stone wall and munched a red apple; +but this is to anticipate. +</P> + +<P> +I had made a wrong turn on leaving the Prescott Arms, and I came out +presently near Katonah village. I got my bearings of a shopkeeper and +started again for Hopefield Manor; but the mid-afternoon was warm, and +the hills were steep, and as Miss Hollister's admirable cob showed +signs of weariness, I drove into a fence-corner and loosened the mare's +check. On a sunny slope several hundred yards above the highway lay an +orchard, advertised to the larcenous eye by the ruddiest of red apples. +Not in many years had I robbed an orchard, and I felt irresistibly +drawn toward the gnarled trees, which were still, in their old age, +abundantly fruitful. +</P> + +<P> +When I reached the orchard I found it quite isolated, with only fallow +fields, seamed with stone fences, stretching on either hand. A spring +near by sent the slenderest of brooks flashing down the slope. There +was no house in sight anywhere, and the neglected orchard flaunted its +bright fruit with pathetic bravado. I drew down a bough and plucked my +first apple, tasted, and found it good. At my palate's first +responsive titillation, something whizzed past my ear, and following +the flight of the missile, I saw an apple of goodly size fall and roll +away into the grass. I had imagined myself utterly alone, and even +now, as I looked guiltily around, no one was in sight. The apple had +passed my ear swiftly and at an angle quite un-Newtonian. It had been +fairly aimed at my head, and the law of gravitation did not account for +it. As I continued my scrutiny of the landscape, I was addressed by a +voice whose accents were not objurgatory. Rather, the tone was +good-natured and indulgent, if not indeed a trifle patronizing. The +words were these:— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"Soup of the evening, beautiful soup!"<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +It was then that, lifting my eyes, I beheld, sitting lengthwise of the +wall, with her feet drawn comfortably under her, a girl in a white +sweater, bareheaded, munching an apple. There was no question of +identity: it was the girl whose head behind the cashier's grill of the +Asolando had interested me on the occasion of my second visit to the +tea-room. In soliciting my attention by reciting a line of verse, she +had merely followed the rule of the tea-room in like circumstances. +The casting of the apple at my head possessed the virtue of novelty, +but now that her shot was fired and her line spoken, she addressed +herself again to her apple. Her manner implied indifference; but her +unconcern was that of a trout not wishing to discourage the fisherman, +feigning a languid interest in a familiar fly dropped at its nose. +While I tried to think of something to say, I pecked at my own apple, +but kept an eye on her. She concluded her repast calmly and flung away +the core. +</P> + +<P> +"I mentioned soup," she remarked. "The courses are mixed. We have +partaken of fruit. Are you fish, flesh, fowl, or good red herring?" +</P> + +<P> +"Daughter of Eve, I will be anything you like. I 'm obliged for the +apple, and I apologize for having entered Eden uninvited." +</P> + +<P> +"It's not my Eden. Nobody invited me. But it's not too much to say +that these apples are grand." +</P> + +<P> +"I 'm glad we 're both in the same boat. I 'm a trespasser myself. I +don't even know the name of the owner. But if you have had only one +apple, two more are coming to you, if you follow Atalanta's precedent." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't follow precedents, and I 've forgotten the name of the boy who +threw the apples in the race. It does n't matter, though; nothing +matters very much." +</P> + +<P> +Her hands clasped her knees. Her skirt was short, and I was conscious +that she wore tan shoes. She continued to regard me with lazy +curiosity. She seemed younger than at the Asolando. Not more than +eighteen times had apples reddened on the bough in her lifetime! She +was even slenderer and more youthful in her sweater than in the snowy +vestments of the Asolando. Her hair which, in the glow of the lamp at +Asolando cash-desk had been golden, was to-day burnished copper, and +was brushed straight back from her forehead and tied with a black +ribbon. +</P> + +<P> +"I quite agree with your philosophy. Nothing is of great importance." +</P> + +<P> +"So it's not your orchard?" she asked. +</P> + +<P> +"The thought flatters me. I own no lands nor ships at sea. I 'm a +chimney doctor, and if necessary I 'll apologize for it." +</P> + +<P> +"You needn't submit testimonials; I take the swallows out of my own +chimneys." +</P> + +<P> +"That requires a deft hand, and I 'm sure you 're considerate of the +swallows." +</P> + +<P> +"You may come up here and sit on the wall if you care to. I saw you +driving in a trap. I hope your horse is n't afraid of motors; motors +speed scandalously on that road." +</P> + +<P> +"I am not in the least worried about my horse. It's borrowed. As you +remarked, this is a nice orchard. I like it here." +</P> + +<P> +"If you are going to be silly, you will find me little inclined to +nonsense." +</P> + +<P> +"Shall we talk of the Asolando? I haven't been back since I saw you +there. And yet,—let me see, is n't this your day there?" +</P> + +<P> +She seemed greatly amused; and her laughter rose with a fountain-like +spontaneity, and fell, a splash of musical sound, on the mellow air of +the orchard. She had changed her position as I joined her, sitting +erect, and kicking her heels lazily against the wall. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Chimney Man, something terrible happened just after you left that +afternoon. I was bounced, fired; I lost my job." +</P> + +<P> +"Incredible! I 'm sure it was not for any good cause. I can testify +that you were a model of attention; you were surpassingly discreet. +You repelled me in the most delicate manner when I intimated that I +should come often on the days that you made the change." +</P> + +<P> +"The sad part of it was that that was not only my last day but my +first! I had never been there before, except for a nibble now and then +when I was in town. But I could n't stand it. It was like being in +jail; in fact, I think jail would be preferable. But I 'm glad I spent +that one day there. It proved what I have long believed, that I am a +barbarian. That poetry on the walls of the Asolando made me tired, not +that it is n't good poetry, but that the walls of a tea-shop are no +place for it. I always suspect that people who like their poetry +framed, and who have uplift mottoes stuck in mirrors where they can +study them while they brush their hair in the morning, never really get +any poetry inside of them. You need a place like this for poetry,—an +old orchard, with blue sky and a crumbly wall to sit on. I tried the +Asolando as a lark, really, not because I 'm deeply entertained by that +sort of thing. They dispensed with my company because I remarked to +one of the silly girls who are making the Asolando their life-work that +I thought the English Pre-Raphaelites had carried the dish-face rather +too far. The girl to whom I uttered this heresy was so shocked she +dropped a tea-cup,—you know how brittle everything is in there,—and I +came home. You were really the only adventure I got out of my day +there. And I did n't find you entirely satisfactory." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, Francesca, for these confidences. And having lost your +position you are now free to roam the hills and dream on orchard walls. +Your scheme of life is to my liking. I can see with half an eye that +you were born for the open, and that the walls of no prison-house can +ever hold you again." +</P> + +<P> +She nodded a dreamy acquiescence. Then she turned two very brown eyes +full upon me and demanded:— +</P> + +<P> +"What is your name, please?" +</P> + +<P> +I mentioned it. +</P> + +<P> +"And you doctor chimneys? That sounds very amusing." +</P> + +<P> +"I 'm glad you like it. Most people think it absurd." +</P> + +<P> +"What are you doing here? There's not a chimney in sight." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I have a commission in the neighborhood. Hopefield Manor; you may +have heard of Miss Hollister's place." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course; every one knows of her." +</P> + +<P> +"And now that I think of it, it was she about whom you asked in the +Asolando that afternoon. You wanted to know what she said about the +tea-room." +</P> + +<P> +"I remember perfectly." +</P> + +<P> +She was quiet for a moment, then she threw back her head and laughed +that rare laugh of hers. +</P> + +<P> +"You might let me into the joke." +</P> + +<P> +"It would n't mean anything to you. I have a lot of private jokes that +are for my own consumption." +</P> + +<P> +"Your way of laughing is adorable. I hope to hear more of it. In the +Asolando you repulsed me in a manner that won my admiration, but I +venture to say now that, if you roam these pastures, I am the grass +beneath your feet; and if yonder tuneful water be sacred to you, I sit +beside the brook to learn its song." +</P> + +<P> +"You talk well, sir, but from your tone I fear you can't forget that we +met first in the Asolando. That day of my life is past, and I am by no +means what you might call an Asolandad. I don't seem to impress you +with that fact. I 'm a human being, not to be picked like a red apple, +or trampled upon like grass, or listened to as though I were a foolish +little brook. I 'm greatly given to the highway, and I prefer macadam. +I like asphalt pavements, too, for the matter of that. I should love a +motor, but lacking the coin I pedal a bicycle. My wheel lies down +there in the bushes. You see, Mr. Chimney Man, I am a plain-spoken +person and have no intention of deceiving you. My name was Francesca +for one day only. It may interest you to know that my real name is +Hezekiah." +</P> + +<P> +"Hezekiah!" +</P> + +<P> +I must have shouted it; she seemed startled by my violence. +</P> + +<P> +"You have pronounced it correctly," she remarked. +</P> + +<P> +"Then you are Cecilia's sister and Miss Hollister's niece." +</P> + +<P> +"Guilty." +</P> + +<P> +"And you live?"— +</P> + +<P> +"Over there somewhere, beyond that ridge," and she waved her hand +vaguely toward the village and laughed again. +</P> + +<P> +"Pray tell me what this particular joke is: it must be immensely +funny," I urged, struggling with these new facts. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it's Aunt Octavia! She will be the death of me yet! You know the +girl who waited on Aunt Octavia that afternoon took all that artistic +nonsense as seriously as a funeral, and she told me after you left, +with the greatest horror, that Aunt Octavia had asked for a cocktail!" +That laugh rippled off again to carry joy along the planet-trails above +us. "But you know," she resumed, "that Aunt Octavia never drank a +cocktail in her life,—and would n't! She does n't know a cocktail +from soothing syrup! She pines for adventures. She is just like a +boarding-school girl who has read her first romance of the young +American engineer in a South American republic, shooting the insurgents +full of tortillas and marrying the president's dark-eyed daughter. She +reads pirate books and is crazy about buried chests and pieces of +eight. And they say I 'm just like her! She is the most perfectly +killing person in the world!" +</P> + +<P> +Hezekiah laughed again. +</P> + +<P> +So this was the child whose devotion had rendered Wiggins so miserable, +and the sister of whom Cecilia Hollister and her aunt had spoken so +strangely. I had not suspected it. She was as unlike Cecilia as +possible, and the difference lay in her independent spirit and bubbling +humor. Her individuality was more pronounced. You took her, without +debate, on her own ground; and though she had expressed a preference +for macadam, she seemed related to the days when maidens sat on sunny +walls and were not disappointed in their expectation that light-footed +youths, or mayhap winged sons of the Olympians, would reward patient +waiting. But at the same time she struck the note of modernity. Her +flings at the Asolando were reassuring; she was a healthy-minded, +vigorous young woman whose nature protested against affectation and +pose. She rebelled against closed doors, whether those of town or +country. I am myself much of a cockney, and not averse to asphalt and +streets ablaze with electric banners. My imagination sprang to meet +this Hezekiah. I had, in fact, a feeling that I had waited for her +somewhere in some earlier incarnation. She jumped down from the wall, +shook three apples from a tree, and sustained them in the air with the +deftness and certainty of practised <I>jonglerie</I>. Her absorption was +complete, and when she wearied of this sport, she flung the apples +away, one after the other, with a boy's free swing of the arm. Herrick +would have delighted in her; Dobson would have spun her bright hair +into a rondeau; but only Aldrich, with a twinkle in his eye, could have +brought her up to date in a dozen chiming couplets. I felt that no +matter how much one admired and respected this Hezekiah one would never +deal with her in the phrases of drawing-rooms. Her charming +inadvertences made this impossible; and it was the part of discretion +to await her own initiative. +</P> + +<P> +She had gone on up to the crest of the orchard, and stood clearly +limned against the sky, her hands thrust into the pockets of her +sweater. She appeared to be intent upon something that lay beyond, and +half turned her head and summoned me by whistling. I liked this better +than the quotation method of address. It was a clear shrill pipe, that +whistle, and she emphasized it further by a peremptory wave of her arm. +When I stood beside her I was surprised to find that the site commanded +a wide area, including the unmistakable roofs and chimneys of Hopefield +Manor half a mile distant. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-125"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-125.jpg" ALT="She emphasized it further by a peremptory wave of her arm." BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +She emphasized it further by a peremptory wave of her arm. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"You will see something funny down there in a minute. They are out of +sight now, but there 's a stile—the kind with steps, just beyond those +trees. It's in a path that leads from the Prescott Arms to Aunt +Octavia's. Look!" +</P> + +<P> +My eyes discovered the stile. It was set in a wall that was, she told +me, the boundary dividing Hopefield Manor from another estate nearer +our position. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly a silk hat bobbed in the path beyond the stile; it rose as its +owner mounted the steps; it paused an instant when the top of the stile +was reached; then quickly descended, and came toward us, a black blot +above a black coat. I was about to ask her the meaning of this +apparition when a second silk hat bobbed in the path and then rose like +its predecessor, descending and keeping on its way until hidden from +our sight by shrubbery. A third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, +eighth, and ninth followed. Nine gentlemen in silk hats crossing a +stile in a lonely pasture between woodlands; so much was plain to the +eye from our vantage-ground; but I groped blindly for an explanation of +this spectacle. The bobbing hats and dark coats suggested wanderers +from some dark Plutonian cave, bent upon mischief to the upper world. +Their step was jaunty; they moved as though drilled to the same cadence. +</P> + +<P> +We waited a moment, expecting that another figure might join the +strange procession, but nine was the correct count. I looked down to +find Hezekiah checking them off on the fingers of her slim brown hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Has there been a funeral and are they the returning pall-bearers?" I +inquired. +</P> + +<P> +"Not yet," she replied. +</P> + +<P> +Her face showed amusement; the twitching of her lips encouraged hope +that another of those delightful laughs was imminent. +</P> + +<P> +"It was positively weird," I said. "It reminds me of a dream I used to +have, when I was a boy, of a long line of Chinamen running along the +top of a great wall,—an interminable procession. I must have dreamed +that dream a hundred times. I could hear the pigtails of those fellows +flapping against their backs as they trotted along, and the soft +scraping of their sandals on the smooth surface of the wall. But the +pot hats are equally eerie and unaccountable to my dull +twentieth-century senses. Pray tell me the answer, Hezekiah." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, those are Cecilia's suitors. They've been to Aunt Octavia's to +tea. They 're staying at the Prescott Arms probably." +</P> + +<P> +"They 're terribly formal. I can't get rid of the impression of +sombreness created by those fellows. You 'd hardly expect them to +tramp cross country in those duds. Such grandeur should go on wheels." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, they are afraid of Aunt Octavia! She won't allow a motor on her +grounds; and I suppose they 're afraid they might break some other rule +if they went on any kind of wheels. She 's rather exacting, you know, +my aunt Octavia." +</P> + +<P> +"I was at the Prescott for luncheon to-day, and I must have seen these +gentlemen there." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, <I>you</I> were at the Prescott?" +</P> + +<P> +Almost for the first time her manner betrayed surprise; but mischief +danced in the brown eyes. With Wiggins's confession as to the havoc he +had played with Hezekiah's confiding heart fresh in my memory, I felt a +delicacy about telling her that it was to see Wiggins that I had +visited the inn. But to my surprise she introduced the subject of +Wiggins immediately, and with laughter struggling for one of those +fountain-like splashes that were so beguiling. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Wiggy is staying there! Do you know Wiggy?" +</P> + +<P> +"Know Wiggy, Hezekiah? I know no man better." +</P> + +<P> +"Wiggy is no end of fun, isn't he? I've heard him speak of you. You +are his friend the Chimney Man. He was the last man over the stile. +Did you notice that he lingered a moment longer at the top than the +others? From his being the ninth man I imagine that he was the last to +leave the house, and he probably felt that this set him apart from the +others. Wiggy is nothing if not shy and retiring." +</P> + +<P> +A heart-broken, love-lorn girl did not speak here. She whistled softly +to herself as we descended. The air was cooling rapidly, and the west +was hung in scarlet and purple and gold. The horse neighed in the road +below, and I knew that I must be on my way to the Manor. +</P> + +<P> +"Hezekiah," I said, when I had drawn her bicycle from its hiding-place, +"you 'd better leave your wheel here and let me drive you home. It's +late and there 's frost in the air. I imagine it's some distance to +your house." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, Mr. Chimney Man; but it is much farther to Aunt Octavia's, +for you have to make a long circuit around the hills. And besides, as +we met in the orchard, it would be altogether too commonplace a +conclusion of our adventure for you to drive me home behind a mere +horse. But tell me this: what do you think of Wiggy's chances?" +</P> + +<P> +"Of winning your sister? I should say from my knowledge of Wiggins +that he is a man much given to staying in a game once the cards are +shuffled." +</P> + +<P> +She nodded, standing beside her wheel, her hands on the bars. Her +manner was contemplative; her eyes for a moment were deep, shadowless +pools of reverie. +</P> + +<P> +"Then you think he knows the game?" +</P> + +<P> +There seemed to be something beneath the surface meaning of her words, +but I answered:— +</P> + +<P> +"Wiggy's affairs have been few, and while he may not know the game in +all its intricacies, he has a shrewd if rather slow mind, and besides, +he has asked my help in the matter." +</P> + +<P> +"One of these speak-for-yourself-John situations, then? Well, I should +say, Mr. Chimney Man, I should say"— +</P> + +<P> +She made ready for flight, looking ahead to be sure of a clear +thoroughfare. +</P> + +<P> +"I should say," she concluded, settling her skirts, "that that +indicates considerable intelligence on Wiggy's part." +</P> + +<P> +The tires rolled smoothly away; the gravel crunching, the pebbles +popping. The white sweater clasped a straight back snugly; then +suddenly, as the wheels gained momentum, she bent low for a spurt, and +her rapidly receding figure became a gray blur in the purple dusk. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +VIII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +CECILIA'S SILVER NOTE-BOOK +</H4> + +<P> +Miss Octavia was in the gayest spirits at dinner that night, and struck +afield at once with one of her amusing dicta. +</P> + +<P> +"Human beings," she said, "may be divided into two groups,—interesting +and uninteresting; but idiots abound in both classes." +</P> + +<P> +Cecilia and I discussed this with more or less gravity, until we had +exhausted the possibilities, Miss Octavia following with apparent +interest and setting us off at a new tangent when our enthusiasm +lagged. She referred in no way whatever to her chimneys, nor did she +ask me how I had spent the day. I felt the pleading of Cecilia's eyes +that I should accept the situation as it stood, and having already +agreed to Wiggins's suggestion that I abide in Miss Hollister's house +as a spy,—for this was the ignoble fact,—I felt the threads of +conspiracy binding me fast. So far as my hostess was concerned, I was +now less a guest than a member of the household. +</P> + +<P> +The variety of subjects that Miss Octavia suggested was amazing. From +aeronautics to the negro question, from polar exploration to the +political conditions in Bulgaria, she passed with the jauntiest +insouciance and apparently with a considerable fund of information to +support her positions. She knew many people in all walks of life. I +remember that she spoke with the greatest freedom of the Governor of +Indiana, whom she had met on a railway journey. She quoted this +gentleman's utterances with keenest zest. His anecdotal range she +declared to be the widest and raciest she had ever encountered in a +considerable acquaintance with public characters. She thought the +Hoosier statesman eminently fitted by reason of his acute sense of +humor for the office of president. +</P> + +<P> +"That man," said Miss Octavia, "was splendidly equipped for handling +the most perplexing affairs of state. It seemed absurd that his public +services should be limited to the petty business of a commonwealth +whose chief products are pawpaws, persimmons, and politics. The +governor told me that before his election he had been sorely beset by +reformers. They had teased him persistently to express his views on +the most absurd questions. They wanted him to promise all manner of +things before they gave him their support. And finally, to appease +them, he answered that he would combine their questions in one and +reply to all that, the earth being round, he would, if elected, do all +in his power to make it square. This he found to be perfectly +satisfactory to the reformers. Solomon was a mere tyro in wisdom +compared with that man. You would n't expect so much sagacity in one +who, by his own frank confession, had been raised on fried meat, and +who declared that if grand opera were attempted in his state he would +suspend the writ of habeas corpus and call out the militia to suppress +it." +</P> + +<P> +I was not at all sure whether the governor whom she quoted with so +great delight was an actual person or a myth upon whom Miss Octavia +hung her own whimsicalities; but as if to rebuke my skepticism, she +dwelt on this personage at considerable length, inviting my own and +Cecilia's questions as to her knowledge of him. +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't suppose," remarked Cecilia provocatively, "that Indiana was +really a place that you could go to on trains, but a kind of imaginary +kingdom like Eppenwelzen-Sarkeld or Grunewald or Zenda, or an extinct +place in Asia where lions crouch upon the ruins in the moonlight." +</P> + +<P> +"Indiana," said Miss Octavia sternly, "is a commonwealth for which I +have always had the greatest veneration, and which, in due course, I +hope to visit. In the early seventies my father, the late Hezekiah +Hollister, invested a considerable part of his fortune in Indiana +farm-mortgages. On these investments the interest was paid with only +the greatest reluctance and in the most fitful fashion. This, I think, +argues for a keen sense of humor in the Hoosier people. Interest is +something that I should never think of paying in any circumstances, as +I have always considered it immoral. My father, keenly enjoying the +playfulness of the Hoosiers in this particular, saved himself from loss +merely by raising the price of baby-cabs throughout the world, and gave +the mortgages as a free gift to the Society for the Amelioration of the +Condition of Good Indians. All the good Indians being dead, the +society had no expenses except officers' salaries, and as the Hoosiers +gave up politics for a season and raised enough corn to pay their +debts, the society became enormously rich." +</P> + +<P> +As we rose from the table Miss Octavia declared that she must show me +the pie-pantry. I was now so accustomed to her ways that I should not +have been in the least surprised if she had proposed opening a steel +vault filled with a mummified Egyptian dynasty. +</P> + +<P> +"The gentleman who built this house," she explained, "had already grown +rich in the manufacture of the famous ribless umbrella before he +acquired a second fortune from a nostrum warranted to cure dyspepsia. +He was inordinately fond of pies, and in order that this form of pastry +might never be absent from his home, he had a special pantry built to +which he might adjourn at his pleasure without any fear of finding the +cupboard bare." +</P> + +<P> +She led the way through the butler's pantry and into a small cupboarded +room adjoining the table-linen closet. At her command the butler threw +open the doors, and disclosed lines of shelves so arranged as to +accommodate, in the most compact and orderly form imaginable, several +dozens of pies. These pastries, in the pans as they had come from the +oven, peeped out invitingly. Miss Octavia explained their presence in +her usual impressive manner. +</P> + +<P> +"It was one of the conditions of the sale of this house to me by the +original owner's executors that the pie-vault should be kept filled at +all times, whether I am in residence here or not. He felt greatly +indebted to pie for the success of the dyspepsia cure. It had widened +and steadily increased the market for the cure, and pie was to him a +consecrated and sacred food. It was his habit to eat a pie every night +before retiring, and on the nightmares thus inspired he had planned the +strategy of all his campaigns against dyspepsia. The man had elements +of greatness, and these shelves are a monument to his genius. In order +to keep perfect my title to this property it is necessary for me to +maintain a pastry-cook, and as I do not myself care greatly for +pie—though contrary to common experience I have found it a splendid +antephialtic—the total output is distributed among the people of the +neighborhood every second day. The station agent at Bedford is a heavy +consumer, and a retired physician at Mt. Kisco has a standing order for +a dozen a week. My niece Hezekiah, of whom you have heard me speak, is +partial to a particular type of pie and one only. It is the gooseberry +that delights Hezekiah's palate, and under G in File 3, in the corner +behind you, there is even now a gooseberry pie that I shall send to +Hezekiah, who, for reasons I need not explain, does not now visit here." +</P> + +<P> +"But the dyspepsia man—you speak of him as though he were dead." +</P> + +<P> +"Your assumption is correct, Mr. Ames. The builder of Hopefield died +only a few weeks after he had established himself in this house. +Having entered upon the enjoyment of his well-earned leisure, and made +it unnecessary that he should ever go pieless to bed, he gave himself +up for a fortnight to a mad indulgence in meringues, and died after +great suffering, steadily refusing his own medicine to the end." +</P> + +<P> +We still lingered in the pie-crypt after this diverting recital, while +Miss Octavia entertained me with her views on pies. +</P> + +<P> +"The soul-color of pies varies greatly, Mr. Ames. It has always seemed +to me that apple-pie stands for the homelier virtues of our +civilization; it is substantial, nutritious and filling. The custard +and lemon varieties are feminine, and do not, perhaps for that reason, +appeal to me. Cherry-pie at its best is the last and final expression +of the pie genus, and where cooks have been careful in eliminating the +seeds, and the juice hasn't made sodden dough of the crust, a +cherry-pie meets the soul's highest demands. Grape and raisin-pie are +on my cook's <I>index expurgatorius</I>; I consider them neither palatable +nor respectable. But rhubarb is the most odious pie of all, in my +judgment. It suggests the pharmacopoeia—only that and no thing more. +You will pardon me for mentioning the matter, but one of my gardeners, +a Swiss, crawled in here two nights ago and stole a rhubarb-pie, which, +I rejoice to say, made him hideously ill. The R's, you will notice, +are placed near the floor and within easy reach of any larcenous hand. +The ease of his approach was his undoing. The pumpkin variety reaches +almost the same lofty heights as the cherry. When not over-dosed with +spices, a pumpkin-pie conveys a sense of the October landscape that is +the despair of the best painters. In the gooseberry I find a certain +raciness, or if I may use the expression, zip, that is highly +stimulating. Both qualities you will observe in Hezekiah if you come +to know her well. The thought of blackberry or raspberry-pie depresses +me, but huckleberry buoys the spirit again. The huckleberry seems to +me to voice a protest, and unless managed with the greatest neatness +and circumspection it is bound to stimulate the laundry business. As +any one who would eat a cooked strawberry would steal a sick baby's +rattle, I need hardly say that the strawberry-pies, even in their +season, shall have no place on these shelves." +</P> + +<P> +"So it is the gooseberry that Miss Hezekiah prefers," I remarked with +feigned carelessness, as we walked toward the library. +</P> + +<P> +"It is, Mr. Ames; and I trust that your inquiry implies no reflection +on Hezekiah's judgment." +</P> + +<P> +"Quite the reverse, Miss Hollister. It is not going too far to say +that I have formed a high opinion of Miss Hezekiah, and that I should +deal harshly with any one who ventured to criticise her in any +particular." +</P> + +<P> +"Will you kindly inform me just when you made the acquaintance of my +younger niece? I should greatly dislike to believe you guilty of +dissimulation, but when Hezekiah was mentioned in the gun-room last +night your silence led me to assume that she was wholly unknown to you." +</P> + +<P> +"She was, I assure you, at the dinner-hour last night; but I met her +quite by chance this afternoon, in an orchard at no great distance from +this house." +</P> + +<P> +I did not think it necessary to mention the Asolando, as Hezekiah +herself had taken pains to avoid her aunt in the tea room. It was +clear that my words had interested Miss Octavia. She paused in the +hall, and bent her head in thought for a moment. +</P> + +<P> +"May I inquire whether she referred in any way to Mr. Wiggins in this +interview?" +</P> + +<P> +"She did, Miss Hollister," I replied; and I could not help smiling as I +remembered Hezekiah's laughter at the mention of my friend. My smile +did not escape Miss Octavia. +</P> + +<P> +"Just how, may I ask, did she refer to Mr. Wiggins?" +</P> + +<P> +"As though she thought him the funniest of human beings. She laughed +deliciously at the bare mention of his name." +</P> + +<P> +"It was not your impression, then, that she was deeply enamored of him; +that she was eating her heart out for him?" +</P> + +<P> +"Decidedly not, Miss Hollister. She gave me quite a different idea." +</P> + +<P> +"You relieve me greatly. Mr. Wiggins's sense of humor is the +slightest, and I should not in the least fancy him for Hezekiah. And +besides, I am not yet ready to arrange a marriage for her." +</P> + +<P> +She laid the slightest stress on the final pronoun. It was a fair +inference, then, that Miss Cecilia's affairs were being "arranged;" +when they had been determined, a husband would be found for Hezekiah. +But had there ever existed before, anywhere in the Copernican system, a +wealthy aunt so delightfully irresponsible, so vertiginous in her +mental processes, so happily combining the maddest quixotism with the +bold spirit of the Elizabethan mariners! My faith in the real +sweetness and kindliness of her nature was unshaken by her +capriciousness. I did not doubt that her intentions toward her nieces +were the friendliest, no matter what strange devices she might employ +to bend those young women to her purposes. +</P> + +<P> +She disappeared in the hall without excuse, and I entered the library +to find Cecilia sitting alone by the fire. She put aside a book she +had been reading, and seeing that her aunt had not followed me, asked +at once as to my visit to the inn. +</P> + +<P> +"I conveyed your message," I answered; "but you have seen Mr. Wiggins +since, unless I am greatly mistaken." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; he called this afternoon. We had several callers at the +tea-hour. I had rather expected you back." +</P> + +<P> +"The fact is," I replied, "that after I had taken luncheon at the +Prescott Arms, I got lost among the hills, and while in the act of +robbing an apple-orchard I came most unexpectedly upon your sister." +</P> + +<P> +"Hezekiah!" +</P> + +<P> +"The same; and oddly enough, I had met her before, though I did n't +realize it was she until the meeting in the orchard. It was in the +Asolando that I saw her; she was at the cashier's wicket the afternoon +I met your aunt there." +</P> + +<P> +She seemed puzzled for a moment; then her eyes brightened, and she +laughed; but her laugh was not like Hezekiah's. Cecilia's mirth had +its own expression. It was touched with a sweet gravity, and her +laughter was such as one would expect from the Milo if that divine +marble were to yield to mirth. Cecilia grew upon me: there was magic +in her loveliness; she was a finished product. It seemed inconceivable +that she and the fair-haired girl with whom I had exchanged banter in +the upland orchard were daughters of one mother. +</P> + +<P> +"You have given me information, Mr. Ames. I did not know that Hezekiah +had ever been connected with the Asolando." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it was only that one historic day. She says the place was +unbearable. She jarred the holiest chords of the divine lyre by harsh +comments on the Pre-Raphaelite profile. One of the devotees was so +shocked that she dropped a plate or something, and, to put it coarsely, +Hezekiah got the bounce." +</P> + +<P> +My description of Hezekiah's brief tenure of office at the Asolando +seemed to amuse Cecilia greatly. +</P> + +<P> +"There is no one like my sister," she said; "there never was and there +never will be any one half so charming. Hezekiah is an original, who +breaks all the rules and yet always sends the ball over the net. And +it is because she is so inexpressibly dear and precious that I am +anxious that nothing shall ever hurt her,—nothing mar the sweet, +beautiful child-spirit in her." +</P> + +<P> +It was my turn to laugh now. Cecilia's manifestation of maternal +solicitude for Hezekiah seemed absurd. For Hezekiah, in her way, was +older; Hezekiah had raced with Diana and plucked arrows from her +girdle; she had heard Homer at the roadside singing of Achilles' shield. +</P> + +<P> +"Hezekiah is reasonably safe, I should say, because she is so amazingly +swift of foot and eye, and so nimble of speech. She is not to be +caught in a net or tripped with a word." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose that is so," remarked Cecilia soberly. "You thought her +happy when you met her to-day? She did not strike you as being a girl +with a wound in her heart? She was n't particularly <I>triste</I>?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not more so than sunlight on rippled water or the song of the lark +ascending." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course you made no reference to Mr. Wiggins? If I had imagined you +would meet her I should have"— +</P> + +<P> +She ended with an embarrassment that I now understood, and I broke in +cheerfully. +</P> + +<P> +"We did mention him. She asked me if I had seen him, and it was the +thought of him that evoked her merriest laughter." +</P> + +<P> +She shook her head and sighed; then her manner changed abruptly. +</P> + +<P> +"You delivered my message to Mr. Wiggins?" +</P> + +<P> +"I did. He is badly out of sorts and sees nothing clearly. He is very +bitter toward your aunt. He thinks she has treated him outrageously." +</P> + +<P> +"Aunt Octavia has done nothing of the kind," she replied with spirit. +"Mr. Wiggins has no right to speak of Aunt Octavia save in terms of +kindness. If her wits are sharper than his, it is not her fault, that +I can see! But there are matters here that I do not understand, Mr. +Ames. I trust you, as my aunt evidently does, or I should not be +talking to you as I am; and I am moved to ask a favor of you,—a favor +of considerable weight in view of the fact that you are a professional +man with doubtless many pressing calls upon your time." +</P> + +<P> +I bowed humbly before this compliment. My time had been lightly +appraised by Miss Octavia and again by Wiggins. A long telegram from +my assistant that reached me while I dressed for dinner had urged my +immediate attendance upon my office. Some of my best clients, now +reopening their houses for the winter, were in desperate straits. From +the number of appeals for help reported by my assistant I judged that +all the chimneys in the republic had grown obstreperous. But Father +Time learned early in his career that to women his scythe's edge has no +terrors. In this instance I must admit that if Cecilia Hollister +wished to cut a few days out of my reasonable expectation of life it +was not for me to plead sick chimneys as an excuse for declining to +serve her. +</P> + +<P> +In fact, I had never found myself so close upon the heels of the +adventure that we all crave as since making the acquaintance of the +Hollisters. Octavia Hollisters do not occur in the life of every young +man, and both Cecilia and Hezekiah had taken strong hold upon my +imagination. Wiggins's place among the dramatis personæ would in +itself have compelled my sympathetic attention; and the nine silk hats +that I had seen bobbing over the stile still danced before my eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Hollister," I said, "my time is yours to command. My office is +well organized, and I am sure that my assistant is equal to any demands +that may be made upon him. Pray state in what manner I may serve you." +</P> + +<P> +"I am going far, I know, Mr. Ames, but I beg that you will not be in +haste to leave my aunt's house. She must have been strongly prejudiced +in your favor, or she would not have asked you here on so short +acquaintance. I am confident that she has no thought of your leaving. +She expressed her great liking for you at luncheon, and I am sure that +she will see to it that you do not lack for entertainment. I assume +that you must have gathered from what Mr. Wiggins told you of my +acquaintance with him the peculiar plight in which I am placed." +</P> + +<P> +I bowed. If she groped in the dark and needed my help in finding the +light, I was not the man to desert her. I had dropped my plumb-line +into too many dark chimneys not to feel the fascination of mystery. As +I expressed again my entire willingness to abide at Hopefield Manor as +long as she wished, the footman announced Mr. Hartley Wiggins. +</P> + +<P> +We had hardly exchanged greetings before another man was announced, and +then another. I should say that it was at intervals of about three +minutes that the sedate servant appeared in the curtained doorway and +announced a caller, until nine had been admitted. My spirits soared +high as the gentlemen from the Prescott Arms appeared one after the +other. The earlier arrivals rose to greet the later ones,—and as they +were all in evening clothes I experienced, as when I had seen the same +gentlemen in their afternoon raiment crossing the stile, a sense of +something fantastic and eerie in them. There was nothing unusual about +them, taken as individuals; collectively they were like life-size +studies in black and white that had stepped from their frames for an +evening's recreation. Cecilia introduced me in the order of their +arrival; and in the interest of brevity, and to avoid confusion, I +tabulate them here, with a notation as to their residence and +occupation, taking such data from the notebook in which, at subsequent +dates, I set down the facts which are the basis of this chronicle. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +HARTLEY WIGGINS, Lawyer and Farmer; Hare and Tortoise Club, New York. +</P> + +<P> +LINNÆUS B. HENDERSON, Planter; Roanoke, Virginia. +</P> + +<P> +CECIL HUGH, LORD ARROWOOD, no occupation; Arrowood, Hants, England. +</P> + +<P> +DANIEL P. ORMSBY, Manufacturer of Knit Goods; Utica, New York. +</P> + +<P> +S. FORREST HUME, Lecturer on Scandinavian Literature, Occidental +University; Long Trail, Oklahoma. +</P> + +<P> +JOHN STEWART DICK, Pragmatist; Omaha, Nebraska. +</P> + +<P> +PENDENNIS J. ARBUTHNOT, Banker and Horseman; Lexington, Kentucky. +</P> + +<P> +PERCIVAL B. SHALLENBERGER, Novelist and Small Fruits; Sycamore, Indiana. +</P> + +<P> +GEORGE W. GORSE, Capitalist; Redlands, California. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +We rose and stood in our several places when, a moment later, Miss +Octavia entered. She greeted the suitors graciously, and then, in her +most charming manner, called one after the other to sit beside her on a +long davenport, the time apportioned being weighed with nicety, so that +none might feel himself slighted or preferred. These interviews +consumed more than half an hour, and the movement thus occasioned gave +considerable animation to the scene. +</P> + +<P> +It may seem ridiculous that nine gentlemen thus paying court to a young +woman should call upon her at the same hour, but I must say that the +gravity of the suitors and the entire sobriety of Cecilia did not +affect me humorously. Nor did I feel at all out of place in this +strange company. I found myself agreeably engaged for several minutes +in discussing Ibsen with the Oklahoma professor, who proved to be a +delightful fellow. His experience of life was apparently wide, and he +told me with an engaging frankness of his meeting with the Hollisters +in France and of his pursuit of them over many weary parasangs the +previous summer. As no one had elected his courses in the university +at the beginning of the fall term, he had been granted a leave of +absence, and this accounted for his freedom to press his suit at +Hopefield Manor at this season. He was a big fellow, with clean-cut +features, and bore himself with a manly determination that I found +attractive. +</P> + +<P> +He alone, I may say, of the nine men who had thus appeared in Miss +Octavia's library, met me in a cordial spirit. Even Wiggins seemed not +wholly pleased to find me there again, though he had asked me to +remain. The manner of the others expressed either disdain, suspicion, +or fierce hostility, and Lord Arrowood, who was older than the others +and a man well advanced toward middle age, glared at me so savagely +with his pale blue eyes, that I should have laughed in his face in any +other circumstances. +</P> + +<P> +When the last man rose from the davenport, Miss Octavia called me to +her side. She seemed contrite at having neglected me during the day, +but assured me that later she hoped to place an entire day at my +disposal. As we talked, the nine suitors sat in a semicircle about +Cecilia, while the group listened to an anecdotal exchange between +Professor Hume and Henderson, the Virginia planter. My opinion of +Cecilia Hollister as a girl of high spirit, able to carry off any +situation no matter how difficult, rose to new altitudes as I watched +her. If this strange wooing <I>en bloc</I> was not to her liking, she +certainly made the best of it. She capped Henderson's best story with +a better one, in negro dialect, and no professional entertainer could +have improved upon her recital. As she finished we all joined in the +general laugh, Lord Arrowood's guffaw booming out a trifle +boisterously, when Miss Octavia quietly rose and excused herself. +About five minutes later, when the company had plunged into another +series of anecdotes, I suddenly became conscious that the fireplace, +near which I sat, had all at once begun to act strangely. Much in the +manner of its performance the previous night, it abruptly gasped and +choked; the smoke ballooned in a great swirl and then poured out into +the room. +</P> + +<P> +After my examination of the flues in the morning, I had dismissed them +from my mind, and this extraordinary behavior of the library fireplace +astounded me. It is not in reason that a perfectly normal fireplace, +built in the most approved fashion, and with chimneys that rise into as +clear an ether as October can bestow, could act so monstrously without +the intervention of some malign agency. We had discussed all the +possibilities the previous night, and I was not anxious to hear further +lay opinions. The chimney's conduct was annoying, the more so that to +my professional sense it was inexplicable. +</P> + +<P> +Lord Arrowood had retreated discreetly toward the door, and the others +had risen and stood close behind Cecilia, whose gaze was bent rather +accusingly upon me. +</P> + +<P> +A dark thought had crossed my mind. As our eyes met, I felt that she +had read my suspicions and did not wholly reject them. Henderson was +valiantly poking the logs, while one or two of the other men gave him +the benefit of their advice. I crossed the hall to the drawing-room, +but no one was there. I went back to the billiard-room, but saw +nothing of Miss Octavia. Cecilia had rung for the footman, and I +passed him in the hall on his way to answer her summons. I stopped him +with an inquiry on my lips; but I could not ask the question; even in +my perplexity as to the cause of the chimney's remarkable performances +I did not so far forget myself as to communicate my suspicion to a +servant. +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing, Thomas," I said; and the man passed on. +</P> + +<P> +It was possible, of course, that Miss Octavia knew more than she cared +to tell about the erratic ways of the library chimney, or she might +indeed be the cause of its vagaries. Sufficient time had elapsed after +her retirement from the library to allow her to gain the roof and clap +a stopper on the chimney-pot. This did not however account for the +fact that on the previous evening she had been present in the library +when the same chimney had manifested a similar sulkiness. I was still +pondering these things when I heard loud laughter from the library, and +on returning found the logs again blazing in the fireplace, from which +the smoke rose demurely in the flue. +</P> + +<P> +"This fireplace is like a geyser, Mr. Ames," said Cecilia, "and spurts +smoke at regular intervals. As I remember, the clock on the stair was +striking nine last night when the smoke poured out, and there—it is +striking nine now!" +</P> + +<P> +She tossed her head slightly; and this was, I thought, in disdain of +the suspicion that must still have shown itself a little stubbornly in +my face. +</P> + +<P> +I withdrew again in a few minutes, and followed the great chimney's +course upward. Miss Octavia's apartments were at the front of the +house, her sitting-room windows looking out upon the Italian garden. +Her doors were closed, but I knew from my examination in the morning +that the flue of her fireplace tapped the chimney that rose from the +drawing-room, and had nothing whatever to do with the library chimney. +</P> + +<P> +From the fourth floor I gained the roof, by the route followed on my +inspection of the house in the morning. The smoke from the library +chimney was rising in the crisp, still air blithely. I leaned upon the +crenelations and looked off across the hills, enjoying the loveliness +of the sky, in which the planets throbbed superbly. There was nothing +to be learned here, and I crept back to the trap-door through which I +had come, made it fast, and continued on down to the library. +</P> + +<P> +There, somewhat to my surprise, I found that in my absence all but Hume +had taken their departure. As I paused unseen in the doorway, I caught +words that were clearly not intended for my ear. +</P> + +<P> +Cecilia sat by the long table near the fireplace; Hume stood before +her, his arms folded. +</P> + +<P> +"You are kind; you do me great honor, Professor Hume, but under no +circumstances can I become your wife." +</P> + +<P> +I retreated hastily to the billiard-room, where I took a cue from the +rack and amused myself for perhaps fifteen minutes, when, hearing the +outer door close and knowing that Hume had departed with his congee, I +returned to the library. +</P> + +<P> +Cecilia sat where I had left her, and at first glance I thought she was +reading; but she turned quickly as I crossed the room. She held in her +hand an oblong silver trinket not larger than a card-case. A short +pencil similar to those affixed to dance-cards was attached to it by a +slight cord, and she had, I inferred, been making a notation of some +kind on a leaf of the silver-bound booklet. Even after she had looked +up and smiled at me, her eyes sought the page before her; then she +closed the covers and clasped the pretty toy in her hand. As though to +divert my attention she recurred at once to the chimney, in a vein of +light irony. +</P> + +<P> +"You see," she said, "there is ample reason for your remaining here. +You would hardly find anywhere else so interesting a test of your +professional powers as Hopefield Manor offers. The house is haunted +beyond question, and I can see that you are not a man to leave two +defenseless women to the mercy of a ghost who drops down chimneys at +will." +</P> + +<P> +I suffered her chaff for several minutes, then I asked point-blank:— +</P> + +<P> +"Pardon me, but have you the slightest idea that Miss Octavia is behind +this? It is not possible that she was responsible last night; but she +was not on this floor a while ago when the smoke poured in here. I +should be glad to hear your opinion." +</P> + +<P> +"I saw that you suspected her before you left the room, Mr. Ames, and I +must say that the idea is in no way creditable to you. If you +entertain such a suspicion you must supply a motive, and just what +motive would you attribute to my Aunt Octavia in this instance?" +</P> + +<P> +Her tone and manner piqued me, or I should not have answered as I did. +</P> + +<P> +"It is possible," I said, "that some of these gentlemen who came here +to-night were not to her liking, and it may have occurred to her to get +rid of them by the obviously successful method of smoking them out." +</P> + +<P> +She rose, still clasping the little silver-backed note-book, and looked +me over with amusement in her face and eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"You are almost too ingenious, Mr. Ames. I hope that by breakfast-time +you will have some more plausible solution of the problem. Good-night." +</P> + +<P> +And so, tightly clasping the little book, she left the room. I +followed her to the door, and at the turn of the stair she glanced down +and nodded. Her face, as it hung above me for an instant, seemed +transfigured with happiness. +</P> + +<P> +But, as will appear, my adventures for the day were not concluded. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +IX +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I MEET A PLAYFUL GHOST +</H4> + +<P> +It was not yet ten o'clock, and I was dismayed at the thought of being +left to my own devices in this big country-house, at an hour when the +talk at the Hare and Tortoise usually became worth while. I sat down +and began to turn over the periodicals on the library table, but I was +in no mood for reading. +</P> + +<P> +The butler appeared and offered me drink, but the thought of drinking +alone did not appeal to me. I repelled the suggestion coldly; but +after I had dropped my eyes to the English review I had taken up, I was +conscious that he stood his ground. +</P> + +<P> +"Beg pardon, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"Well?" +</P> + +<P> +"Hit's a bit hod about the chimney, sir." +</P> + +<P> +The professional man in me was at once alert. The chimney's conduct +was inexplicable enough, but I was in no humor to brook the theories of +a stupid servant. Still, he might know something, so I nodded for him +to go on. +</P> + +<P> +He glanced over his shoulder and came a step nearer. +</P> + +<P> +"They say in the village, sir, that the 'ouse is 'aunted." +</P> + +<P> +"What?" +</P> + +<P> +"'Aunted, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"Who say it, James?" +</P> + +<P> +"The liveryman told the coachman, and the 'ousemaid got hit from a +seamstress. Hit's werry queer, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"Rubbish, James. I 'm amazed that a person of your station should +listen to a liveryman's gossip. There 's the chimney, it's working +perfectly. Some shift of air-currents causes it to puff a little smoke +into this room occasionally, but those things are not related to the +supernatural. We 'll find some way of correcting it in a day or two." +</P> + +<P> +"Werry good, sir. But begging pardon, the chimney hain't hall. Hit +walks, if I may so hexpress hit." +</P> + +<P> +"Walks?" I exclaimed, sitting up and throwing down my review. "What +walks?" +</P> + +<P> +"You 'ear hit, sir, hin the walls. Hit goes right through the solid +brick, most hunaccountable." +</P> + +<P> +"You hear a mouse in the walls and think it's a ghost? But you forget, +James, that this is a new house,—only a year or so old,—and spooks +don't frequent such places. If it were an old place, it might be +possible that the creaking of floors and the settling of walls would +cause uneasiness in nervous people. The ghost tradition usually rests +on some ugly fact. But here nothing of the kind is present." +</P> + +<P> +"Hit was one of 'is majesty's horfficers, sir," he answered hoarsely. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-159"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-159.jpg" ALT=""Hit was one of 'is majesty's horfficers, sir," he answered hoarsely." BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +"Hit was one of 'is majesty's horfficers, sir," he answered hoarsely. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +It flashed over me that this big stolid fellow was out of his head; but +sane or mad he was clearly greatly disturbed. It was best, I thought, +on either hypothesis, to speak to him peremptorily, and I rose, the +better to deal with the situation. +</P> + +<P> +"What nonsense is this you have in your head? You 're in the United +States, and there are n't any majesty's soldiers to deal with. You +forget that you 're not in England now." +</P> + +<P> +"But this 'ere country used to be Henglish, you may recall, sir. The +story the coachman got hin the village goes back to the hold times, +sir, when the colonies was hin rebellion, if I may so call hit, sir, +and 'is majesty's troops was puttin' down the rebellion hin these +parts. Some American rebels chased a British soldier from hover near +White Plains to these 'ere woods as they was then, and they 'anged 'im, +sir, right where this 'ere 'ouse stands, if I may make so free." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah! This is a revolutionary relic, then?" +</P> + +<P> +"You 'ave got hit, sir," he sputtered eagerly. "They 'anged the man +right 'ere where the 'ouse stands." +</P> + +<P> +"That's not a bad story, James. And what does your mistress say about +it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, sir; hit's the talk hin the village that that's why she bought +the place, sir. She rather fancies ghosts and the like, as you may +know, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"Be careful what you say, James. Miss Hollister is a noble and wise +lady, and you do well to give her your best service." +</P> + +<P> +"We're all fond of 'er, sir, though she's a bit troubled hin the 'ead, +if I may make so bold. She says a good ghost is a hasset." +</P> + +<P> +I did not at once catch 'asset' with an aspirate, but when he repeated +it, I laughed in spite of myself. +</P> + +<P> +"You 'd better go to bed, James. And don't encourage talk among the +other servants about this ghost. I know something about the building +of houses, and I 'll give these walls a good looking over. Good-night." +</P> + +<P> +It was apparent that my interview had not cheered him greatly. He +turned at the door, to ask if I would put out the lights, and fear was +so clearly written upon his big red face that I dismissed him sharply. +</P> + +<P> +I made myself comfortable for an hour, smoking a cigar over an article +on English politics, and while I read, a big log placidly burned itself +to ashes. I found the switch and snapped out the library lights. When +I had gained the second floor I turned off the lights in the hall +below, and as I looked down the well to make sure I had turned the +right key, the third floor lights suddenly died and I was left in +darkness. This was the least bit disconcerting. I was quite sure that +the upper lights had remained burning brightly after the darkening of +the lower hall, so that it was hardly possible that the one switch had +cut off both lights. +</P> + +<P> +Standing by the rail that guarded the well, I peered upward, thinking +that some one above me was manipulating another switch; but the silence +was as complete as the blackness. I was about to turn from the rail to +the wall to find the switch, but at this moment, as my face was still +lifted in the intentness with which I was listening, something brushed +my cheek,—something soft of touch and swift of movement. As I gripped +the rail I felt this touch once, twice, thrice. Then my hand sought +the wall madly, and with so bad an aim that it was quite a minute +before I found the switch-plate and snapped all the keys. The stair, +and the halls above and below me sprang into being again, and I stood +blinking stupidly upward. +</P> + +<P> +Though I was in a modern house thoroughly lighted by electricity, I +cannot deny that this incident, following so quickly upon the butler's +story, occasioned a moment's acute horripilation, accompanied by an +uncomfortable tremor of the legs. As already hinted, I lay no claim to +great valor. As for ghosts, I am half persuaded of their existence, +and after witnessing a presentation of Hamlet, always feel that +Shakespeare is as safe a guide in such matters as the destructive +scientific critics. +</P> + +<P> +There were various plausible explanations of the failure of the lights. +Some switch that I did not know of, perhaps in the third-floor hall, +might have been turned; or the power house in the village might have +been shifting dynamos. Either solution of the riddle was credible. +But the ghostly touch on my face could not be accounted for so readily. +Leaving the lights on, I continued to the third floor, and examined the +switch, and sought in other ways to explain these phenomena. My +composure returned more slowly than I care to confess, and I think it +was probably in my mind that the ghost of King George's dead soldier +might be lying in wait for me; but I saw and heard nothing. The doors +of the unused chambers on the third floor were closed, and I did not +feel justified in trying them. The servants were housed on this floor, +at the rear of the house, and a door that cut off their quarters proved +on examination to be tightly locked. +</P> + +<P> +The fourth floor was only a half-story, used for storage purposes. The +roof was gained, I recalled, by an iron ladder and a hatchway in a +trunk-room. I ran down to my room and found a candle, to be armed +against any further fickleness of the lights, and set out for the +fourth floor. I had changed my coat, and with a couple of candles and +a box of matches started for the roof. My courage had risen now, and I +was ready for any further adventure that the night might hold for me. +Miss Hollister and Cecilia were both in their rooms, presumably asleep; +the servants doubtless had their doors barred against ghostly visitors, +and the house was mine to explore as I pleased. +</P> + +<P> +I think I was humming slightly as I mounted the stair, which, in +keeping with the general luxuriousness that characterized the +furnishing of the house, was thickly carpeted even to the fourth floor. +I was slipping my hand along the rail, and mounting, I dare say, a +little jauntily as I screwed my courage to an unfamiliar notch, when +suddenly, midway of the first half, and just before I reached the turn +where the stair broke, the lights failed again, with startling +abruptness. This was carrying the joke pretty far, and instantly I +clapped my hand to my pocket for the box of safety-matches, dug it out, +and then in my haste dropped the lid essential to ignition, and stooped +to find it. +</P> + +<P> +The stair had narrowed on this flight, and as I sought with futile +eagerness to regain the box-lid, I could have sworn that some one +passed me. Still half-stooping, I stretched out my arms and clasped +empty air, and so suddenly had I thrown myself forward, that I lost my +balance and rolled downward the space of half a dozen treads before I +recovered myself. I was badly scared and hardly less angry at having +missed through my own clumsiness the joy of grappling with the ghost of +one of King George's soldiers; but the matches having been lost in the +pitch-darkness of the stair, I could get my bearings again only by +clinging to the stair-rail until I found the second-floor switch. I +should say that two full minutes had passed between the loss of the +matches and my flashing on of the lamps. From top to bottom the lights +shone brightly; but no one was visible and I heard no sound in any part +of the house. +</P> + +<P> +As I began to analyze my sensations during the temporary eclipse of the +lights, I was conscious of two things. The being, human or other, that +had passed me had been light of step and fleet of motion. There had +been something uncanny in the ease and speed of that passing. I was +without conviction as to its direction, whether up or down, though I +inclined to the former notion for the reason that the employment of a +concealed switch above seemed the more reasonable argument. And a +faint, an almost imperceptible scent, as of a flower, had seemed to be +a part of the passing. Mine is a sensitive nostril, and I was +confident that it did not betray me in this. The sensation stirred by +that faintest of odors had been agreeable; there was nothing suggestive +of grave-mold or cerecloth about it. There was in fact something +rather delightfully human and contemporaneous in this fellow that +pleased and reassured me. That scamp of a revolutionary British +soldier, resenting as was his right the application of hemp to his +precious neck, had still a grace in him, and a ghost who prowls +undaunted about an electric-lighted house in this twentieth century, +having his whim with the switches, cannot be an utterly bad fellow. My +respect for all who are doomed to walk the night rose as, leaving the +lights on clear to the lower hall, I gathered up my matches and started +again for the roof. The trunk-room door opened readily, as on my +morning inspection of the chimney-pots, but as I glanced up, I saw that +the hatch was open. Through the aperture shone the heavens, a square +of stars, and bright with the moon's radiance. Pocketing my matches, I +ran nimbly up the ladder. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +X +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +MY BEFUDDLEMENT INCREASES +</H4> + +<P> +I had been surprised to find the hatch open, but it is not too much to +say that I was greatly astonished by what I saw on the moon-flooded +roof. There, midway of a flat area that lay between the two larger +chimney-pots, two persons were intently engaged, not in ghostly +promenading or posturing, or even in audible conversation, but in a +spirited bout with foils! The clicking and scraping of the steel +testified unmistakably to the reality of their presence. And I was +grateful for those sounds! It needed only silence to tumble me back +down the trap with chattering teeth, but these were beyond question +corporeal beings, albeit rendered weird and fantastical by the oddity +of their playground and the soft effulgence of the moon. The vigor of +the onset and the skill of the antagonists held me spellbound. I stood +with head and shoulders thrust through the opening, staring at this +unusual spectacle, and not sure but that after all my eyes were +tricking me. +</P> + +<P> +"<I>Touché!</I>" +</P> + +<P> +It was a woman's voice, faint from breathlessness. She threw off her +mask and dropped her foil, and with a most human and feminine gesture +put up her hands to adjust her hair. It was Cecilia Hollister, in a +short skirt and fencing coat! +</P> + +<P> +Her opponent was a man, and as he too flung off his mask I saw that he +was a gentleman of years. If Miss Cecilia Hollister chose to meet +strange men on the roof of her aunt's house and practice the fencer's +art with them, it was no affair of mine, and I was about to withdraw +when the stranger swung round and saw me. His sudden exclamation +caused the girl to turn, and as a reasonable frankness has always +seemed to me essential to a nice discretion, I crawled out on the roof. +</P> + +<P> +"I beg your pardon, Miss Hollister, but if I had known you were here I +should not have intruded. The vagaries of the library chimney have +been on my mind, and I was about to have another peep into yonder pot." +</P> + +<P> +She stood at her ease, with one hand resting lightly against the +inexplicable chimney in question, and still somewhat spent from her +exercise. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-169"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-169.jpg" ALT="She stood at her ease, with one hand resting lightly against the inexplicable chimney." BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +She stood at her ease, with one hand resting lightly <BR> +against the inexplicable chimney. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"Father," she said, turning to the stranger who stood near, "this is +Mr. Ames, who is Aunt Octavia's guest." +</P> + +<P> +The light of the gibbous moon enabled me to discern pretty clearly the +form and features of Mr. Bassford Hollister. And I find, in looking +over my notes, that I accepted as a matter of course the singular +meeting with my hostess's brother. I had grown so used to the ways of +the Hollisters I already knew, that the meeting with another member of +the family at eleven o'clock at night on the roof of this remarkable +house gave me no great shock of surprise. He was tall, slender and +dark, with fine eyes that suggested Cecilia's. His close-trimmed beard +was slightly gray: but he bore himself erect, and I had already seen +that he was alert of arm and eye and nimble of foot. +</P> + +<P> +He put on his coat, which had been lying across one of the +crenelations, and covered his head with a small soft hat. +</P> + +<P> +"This will do for to-night, Cecilia. You had the best of me. We 'll +try again another time. I 'm glad you stopped us, Mr. Ames. We 'd had +enough." +</P> + +<P> +He seemed in no wise disturbed by my appearance, nor in any haste to +leave. This meeting between the father and daughter, I reasoned, could +hardly have been a matter of chance, and it must have been in Cecilia's +mind that some sort of explanation would not be amiss. +</P> + +<P> +"Father and I have fenced together for years," she said. "My sister +Hezekiah does not care for the sport. As you have already seen that my +aunt Octavia is an unusual woman, given to many whims, I will not deny +to you that at present my father is <I>persona non grata</I> in this house. +I beg to assure you that nothing to his discredit or mine has +contributed to that situation, nor can our meeting here to-night be +construed as detrimental to him or to me. In meeting my father in this +way I have in a sense broken faith with my aunt Octavia, but I assure +you, Mr. Ames, that it is only the natural affection for a daughter +that led my father to seek me here in this clandestine fashion." +</P> + +<P> +Cecilia had spoken steadily, but her voice broke as she concluded, and +she walked quickly toward the hatchway. Her father stepped before me +to give her his hand through the opening. +</P> + +<P> +I withdrew to the edge of the roof while a few words passed between +them that seemed to be on his part an expostulation and on hers an +earnest denial and plea. He passed her the foils and masks and she +vanished; whereupon he addressed himself to me. +</P> + +<P> +"I had learned from both my daughters of your presence in my sister's +house, and I had expected to meet you, sooner or later. This is a +strange business, a strange business." +</P> + +<P> +He had drawn out a pipe, which he filled and lighted dexterously. The +flame of his match gave me better acquaintance with his face. He +leaned against the serrated roof-guard with the greatest composure, his +hat tilted to one side, and drew his pipe to a glow. I had not +forgotten my encounter with the ghost on the stair, and as I waited for +him to speak, I was trying to identify him with the mysterious agency +that had tampered with the lights, and passed so ghostly a hand across +my face in the stair-well. I could hardly say that there had not been +time for either Bassford Hollister or his daughter to have reached the +roof after my experiences on the stair; and yet they had been engaged +so earnestly at the moment of my appearance at the hatchway that it was +improbable that either could have played ghost and flown to the roof +before I reached it. And eliminating the ghost altogether, I had yet +to learn how Bassford Hollister had gained entrance to the house. It +seemed best to drop speculations and wait for him to declare himself. +</P> + +<P> +"You must understand, Mr. Ames, that my daughters, both of them, are +very dear to me. It is the great grief of my life that owing to +matters beyond my control I have been unable to care for them as I +should like to do. This being the case, I have been obliged to allow +them to accept many favors from my only sister Octavia. This in +ordinary circumstances would not be repugnant to my pride; but my +sister is a very unusual person. She must do for my children in her +own way, and while I was prepared, in agreeing that they should accept +her bounty, for some whimsical manifestation of her eccentric +character, I did not imagine that she would go so far as to shut me out +from all knowledge of her plans for them. That, Mr. Ames, is what has +happened." +</P> + +<P> +His voice rose and fell mournfully. He puffed his pipe for a moment +and continued:— +</P> + +<P> +"Cecilia, being the older, was to be launched first. Hezekiah was to +be cared for in due season. Last summer Octavia took them both abroad. +As you are aware, they are young women of unusual distinction of +appearance and manner, and they attracted a great deal of attention. +From what I hear, a troop of suitors followed them about. That sort of +thing would appeal to Octavia; to me it is most repellent, but I had +already committed myself, agreeing that Octavia should manage in her +own fashion. There is now something forward here which I do not +understand. I have an idea that Octavia has contrived some +preposterous scheme for choosing a husband for Cecilia that is in +keeping with her odd fashion of transacting all her business. I do not +know its nature, and by the terms of her agreement Cecilia is not to +disclose the method to be employed to me,—not even to me, her own +father. You must agree, Ames, that that is rather rubbing it in." +</P> + +<P> +"But you don't assume that your daughter is not to be a free agent in +the matter? You don't believe that some unworthy and improper man is +to be forced upon her?" +</P> + +<P> +"That, sir, is exactly what I fear!" +</P> + +<P> +"You will pardon me, but I cannot for a moment believe that Miss +Hollister would risk her niece's happiness even to satisfy her own +peculiar humor. Your sister is a shrewd woman, and her heart, I am +convinced, is the kindest. Among the suitors now camped at the +Prescott Arms there must be some one whom your daughter approves, and I +see no reason why he should not ultimately be her choice. Now that you +have broached the matter, I make free to say that one of these suitors +is an old friend of mine. Hartley Wiggins by name, and that he is a +man of the highest character and a gentleman in the strictest sense." +</P> + +<P> +He had been listening to me with the greatest composure, but at the +mention of Wiggins's name he started and nervously clutched my arm. +</P> + +<P> +"That man may be all that you say," he cried chokingly, "but he has +acted infamously toward both my daughters. He is a rogue, and a most +despicable fellow. He has flirted outrageously with Hezekiah while at +the same time pretending to be deeply interested in Cecilia. I say to +you in all candor that a man who will trifle with the affections of a +child like Hezekiah is a villain, nothing less." +</P> + +<P> +"But, my dear sir, is it not possible that you do him a great wrong? +May it not be the other way round, that Hezekiah is trifling with +Wiggins's affections? He 's a splendid fellow, Hartley Wiggins, but he +'s a little slow, that's all. And between two superb young women like +your daughters a man may be pardoned for doubts and hesitations; a case +of being happy with either if t'other dear charmer were only away. To +put it quite concretely, I will say that in my own very slight +acquaintance with these young women I feel the spell of both. Your +sister, I take it, is anxious not to show partiality for any of these +men, and yet I dare say she probably feels kindly disposed toward +Wiggins. His worst crime seems to be that he chose Tory ancestors! +The thing is bound to straighten itself out." +</P> + +<P> +He tossed his head impatiently. +</P> + +<P> +"Has it occurred to you that Octavia's interest in this Hartley Wiggins +may be due to a trifling and immaterial fact?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing beyond his indubitable eligibility." +</P> + +<P> +"Then let me tell you what I suspect. Both his names contain seven +letters. My sister is slightly cracked as to the number seven. I +swear to you my belief that the fact that his names contain seven +letters each is at the bottom of all this. Incredible, my dear sir, +but wholly possible!" +</P> + +<P> +"Then, such being the case, why does n't she show her hand openly? If +she believes that Wiggins with his septenary names is ordained by the +seven original pleiades to marry your daughter Cecilia, I should think +that by the same token she would have sought a man rejoicing in the +noble name of Septimus. You send conjecture far when once you +entertain so absurd an idea." +</P> + +<P> +"You think my assumption unlikely?" he asked eagerly. +</P> + +<P> +"I certainly do, Mr. Hollister. But I confess that I had never counted +the letters in Wiggins's name before, and your suggestion is +interesting. And this whole idea of the potential seven in our affairs +has possibilities. If seven at all, why is n't it possible that your +sister has Jacob in mind and the seven years he served for Rachel? You +may as well assume that, as Wiggins is specially favored in the number +of letters in his singularly prosaic and unromantic name, it is Miss +Hollister's plan to keep him dallying seven years." +</P> + +<P> +He seized me by the arm and forced me back against the battlements, +then stood off and eyed me fiercely. +</P> + +<P> +"You speak of serving and of service! Will you tell me just why you +are here and what brings you into this affair! My daughter Hezekiah is +the frankest person alive, and she told me of her meetings with you and +that you had been to the Asolando,—where she spent a day in the +sheerest spirit of mischief. That was the beginning of all our +troubles, that damned hole with its insane confectionery and poetry. +If Cecilia, in a misguided notion of earning her own living, had not +gone there and worn an apron for a week before I dragged her out, she +would never have met Wiggins. And now will you kindly tell me just +what you are doing in my sister's house, where I have to come like a +thief in the night to see one of my own children?" +</P> + +<P> +This fierce deliverance touched me nearly: I doubted my ability to +explain to one of these amazing Hollisters just how I came to be +sojourning in the house of another of the family without any business +that would bear scrutiny. I hastened to declare my profession, and +that I had been summoned by Miss Hollister to examine her chimneys. I +could not, however, tell him that until my arrival the chimneys had +behaved themselves admirably! +</P> + +<P> +"You've admitted your friendship for this Wiggins person; that's +enough," he said when I had concluded. "I advise you to leave the +house at once. I tell you he 's got to be eliminated from the +situation. Understand, that I do not threaten you with violence, but I +will not promise to abstain from visiting heavy punishment upon that +fellow. And you? A chimney-doctor? I am a man of considerable +knowledge of the world, and I say to you very candidly that I don't +believe there is any such profession." +</P> + +<P> +"Then let me tell you," I replied, not without heat, "that I am a +graduate in architecture, and that if you will do me the honor to +consult a list of the alumni of the Institute of Technology, you will +find that I was graduated there not without credit. And as for +remaining in this house, I beg to inform you, Mr. Hollister, that as I +am your sister's guest and as she is perfectly competent to manage her +own affairs, I shall stay here as long as it pleases her to ask me to +remain. And now, one other matter. How did you gain this roof +to-night, when by your own admission you are not on such terms with +your sister as would justify you in entering it openly?" +</P> + +<P> +The moonlight did not fail to convey the contempt in his face, but I +thought he grinned as he answered quietly:— +</P> + +<P> +"You don't seem to understand, young man, that you are entitled to no +explanations from me. If my sister has her sense of a joke, I assure +you that I have mine. I came here to see my daughter. As I taught her +to fence when she was ten years old and as she is particularly expert, +and moreover, as in my present condition of poverty I have been obliged +to forego the pleasure of metropolitan life and to give up my +membership in the Fencers' Club, you can hardly deny my right to meet +my own daughter for a brief bout anywhere I please. You strike me as a +singularly fresh young person. It would be a positive grief to me to +feel that my conduct had displeased you. And now, as the night grows +chill, I shall beg you to precede me into the house by the way you +came." +</P> + +<P> +"But first," I persisted, "let me ask a question. It is possible that +you yourself have some preference among your daughter's several +suitors, Mr. Hollister. Would you object to telling me which one you +would choose for Miss Cecilia?" +</P> + +<P> +"Beyond question, the man for Cecilia, if I have any voice in the +matter, is Lord Arrowood." +</P> + +<P> +"Arrowood!" I exclaimed. "You surprise me greatly. I saw him at the +inn, and he seemed to me the most insignificant and uninteresting one +of the lot." +</P> + +<P> +"That proves you a person of poor gifts of discernment, Mr. Ames;" and +his tone and manner were quite reminiscent of his sister's ways; and +his further explanation proved him even more worthily the brother of +his sister. +</P> + +<P> +"As I was obliged," he began, "owing to an unfortunate physical +handicap, to abandon my art, that of a marine painter, I have given my +attention for a number of years to the study of the Irish situation. +Between the various political parties of Great Britain, poor Ireland +can never regain her ancient power. But I see no reason why she should +not become once more a free and independent nation. I have gone deeply +into Irish history, and I may modestly say that I probably know that +history from the time of the Anglo-Norman invasion to the death of +Gladstone better than any other living man. I met Arrowood by chance +in the highway yesterday, and I found that he holds exactly my ideas." +</P> + +<P> +"But Arrowood isn't an Irishman," I interjected; "neither, I should +say, are you!" +</P> + +<P> +"That's not to the point. Neither was Napoleon a Frenchman strictly +speaking; nor was Lafayette an American. A friend of mine in Wall +Street is ready, when the time is ripe, to finance the scheme by +selling bonds to the multitudes of Irish office-holders throughout the +United States,—most of whom are not unknown to the banks." +</P> + +<P> +"And I suppose you and Arrowood would sit jointly in the seat of the +ancient kings in Dublin after you had effected your <I>coup</I>." +</P> + +<P> +"You lose your bet, Mr. Ames. We have agreed that, as the mayors of +Boston for many years have been Irishmen, and as they have, by their +prowess in holding the natives in subordination, demonstrated the +highest political sagacity, we could not do better than take one of +these rulers of the old Puritan capital and place him on the Irish +throne. The keen humor of that move would so tickle all interested +powers, that the investiture and coronation of the new ruler would be +accomplished without firing a shot." +</P> + +<P> +This certainly had the true Hollister touch! Miss Octavia herself +could not have devised a more delightful scheme. +</P> + +<P> +"And so," Mr. Bassford Hollister concluded, "I naturally incline toward +Arrowood, though he is so poor that he was obliged to come over in the +steerage to continue his wooing of my daughter." +</P> + +<P> +He let himself down into the dark trunk-room, waited for me +courteously, and walked by my side to the stairway, both of us +maintaining silence. I was deeply curious to know how he had entered +and whether he expected to go down the front way and out the main door. +We kept together to the third-floor hall,—I could have sworn to that; +then suddenly, just as we reached the stairway, out went the lights, +and we were in utter darkness. I smothered an exclamation, clutched my +matches and struck a light, and as the stick flamed slowly, I looked +about for Bassford Hollister; but he had vanished as suddenly and +completely as though a trap had yawned beneath us and swallowed him. I +found the third-floor switch and it responded immediately, flooding the +stair-well to the lower hall, but I neither saw nor heard anything more +of Hollister. +</P> + +<P> +Astounded by this performance, I continued on to the lower floor to +have a look around, and there, calmly reading by the library table, sat +Miss Octavia! +</P> + +<P> +"Late hours, Mr. Ames!" she cried. "I supposed you had retired long +ago." +</P> + +<P> +I was still the least bit ruffled by that last transaction on the +stair, and I demanded a little curtly:— +</P> + +<P> +"Pardon my troubling you; but may I inquire, Miss Hollister, how long +you have been sitting here?" +</P> + +<P> +The clock on the stair began to strike twelve, and she listened +composedly to a few of the deep-toned strokes before replying. +</P> + +<P> +"Just half an hour. I thought some one knocked at my door about an +hour ago. The lights were on and I came down, saw a magazine that had +escaped my eye before, and here you find me." +</P> + +<P> +"Some one knocked at your door?" +</P> + +<P> +"I thought so. You know, the servants have an idea that the place is +haunted, and I thought that if I sat here the ghost might take it upon +himself to walk. I confess to a slight disappointment that it is only +you who have appeared. I suppose it was n't you who knocked at my +door?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," I replied, laughing a little at her manner, "not unless it was +you who switched off the lights as I was coming down from the fourth +floor. I have been studying this chimney from the roof. I know +something of the ways of electric switches, and they don't usually move +of their own accord." +</P> + +<P> +"Your coming to this house has been the greatest joy to me, Mr. Ames. +I should not have imagined, in a chance look at you, that you were +psychical, and yet such is clearly the fact. I assure you that I have +not touched any switch since I left my room. It was unnecessary, as I +found the lights on. And I acquit you of rapping, rapping at my +chamber-door. It gives me the greatest satisfaction to assume that the +house is haunted, and at any time you find the ghost, I beg that you +will lose no time in presenting me. If the prowler is indeed one of +King George's soldiers, hanged during the Revolution on the site of +this house, I should like to have words with him. I have just been +reading an article on the political corruption in Philadelphia in this +magazine. It bears every evidence of truth, but if half of it is +fiction I still feel that, as an American citizen, though denied the +inalienable right of representation assured me in the Constitution, we +owe that ghost an apology; for certainly nothing was gained by throwing +off the British yoke, and that poor soldier died in a worthy cause." +</P> + +<P> +She wore a remarkable lavender dressing-gown, and a night-cap such as I +had never seen outside a museum. As she concluded her speech, spoken +in that curious lilting tone which, from the beginning, had left me in +doubt as to the seriousness of all her statements, she rose and, still +clasping her magazine, made me a courtesy and was soon mounting the +stair. +</P> + +<P> +I heard her door close a minute later, and then, feeling that I had +earned the right to repose, I went to my room and to bed. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XI +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I PLAY TRUANT +</H4> + +<P> +I slept late, and on going down found the table set in the +breakfast-room. A pleasant inadvertence marked the choice of +eating-places at Hopefield Manor; I was never quite sure where I should +find a table spread. No one was about, and I was seized with that mild +form of panic familiar to the guest who finds himself late to a meal. +As I paused uncertainly in the door, viewing the table, set, I noticed, +for only one person, Miss Octavia entered briskly, her slight figure +concealed by a prodigious gingham apron. +</P> + +<P> +"Good-morrow, merry gentleman," she began blithely. "The most +delightful thing has happened. Without the slightest warning, without +the faintest intimation of their dissatisfaction, the house-servants +have departed, with the single exception of my personal maid, who, +being a Swede and therefore singularly devoid of emotion, was unshaken +by the ghost-rumors that have sent the rest of my staff scampering over +the hills." +</P> + +<P> +She lighted the coffee-machine lamp in her most tranquil fashion, and +begged me to be seated. +</P> + +<P> +"I have already breakfasted," she continued, "and Cecilia is even now +preparing you an omelet with her own hand. I beg to reassure you, as +my guest, that the <I>émeute</I> of the servants causes me not the slightest +annoyance. From reading the comic papers you may have gained an +impression that the loss of servants is a tragic business in any +household, but nothing so petty can disturb me. Cecilia is an +excellent cook; and I myself shall not starve so long as I have +strength to crack an egg or lift a stove-lid. And besides, I still +retain my early trust in Providence. I do not doubt that before +nightfall a corps of excellent servants will again be on duty here. +Very likely they are even now bound for this place, coming from the wet +coasts of Ireland, from Liverpool, from lonely villages in Scandinavia. +The average woman would merely fret herself into a sanatorium if +confronted with the problem I face this morning, but I hope you will +testify in future to the fact that I faced this day in the cheeriest +and most hopeful spirit." +</P> + +<P> +"Not only shall I do so, Miss Hollister," I replied, trying to catch +her own note, "but it will, throughout my life, give me the greatest +satisfaction to set your cause aright. To that extent let me be +Horatio to your Hamlet." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, milord," she returned, with the utmost gravity. "And may I +say further that the incident gives the stamp of authenticity to my +ghost? I was obliged to pay those people double wages to lure them +from the felicities of the city, and they must have been a good deal +alarmed to have left so precipitately. You must excuse me now, as it +is necessary for me to do the pastry-cook's work this morning, that +individual having fled with the rest, and it being incumbent on me, to +maintain my fee-simple in this property, to make a dozen pies before +high noon. But first I must visit the stables, where I believe the +coachman still lingers, having been prevented from joining the stampede +of the house-servants by the painful twinges of gout." +</P> + +<P> +With this she left me, and I began pecking at a grape-fruit. It had +been in my mind as I dressed that morning to play truant and visit the +city. It was almost imperative that I take a look at my office, and I +had resolved upon a plan which would, I believed, give me the key to +the ghost mystery. If Pepperton had built that house he must know +whether he had contrived any secret passages that would afford exits +and entrances not apparent to the eye. It would be an easy matter to +run into the city, explain myself to my assistant, and get hold of +Pepperton. My mind was made up, and I had even consulted a time-table +and chosen one of the express trains. As I sat at the table absorbed +in my plans for the day, my nerves received a sudden shock. I had +heard no one enter, yet a voice at my shoulder murmured casually: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"Hast thou seen ghosts? Hast thou at midnight heard"—<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +It was the voice of Hezekiah, I knew, before I faced her. She wore a +blue sailor-waist with a broad red ribbon tied under the collar, and a +blue tam o' shanter capped her head. She bore a tray that contained my +omelet, a plate of toast, and other sundries incidental to a +substantial breakfast, which she distributed deftly upon the table. +</P> + +<P> +"How did you get here?" I blurted, my nerves still out of control. +</P> + +<P> +"The kitchen door, sir. I had ridden into the garden, and seeing Aunt +Octavia heading for the stables and Cecilia at the kitchen window, I +pedaled boldly in. Cecilia wanted to borrow my bicycle, and being a +good little sister, I gave it to her. She also said that you required +food, so I told her to go and I would carry you your breakfast. I +shall skip myself in a minute. You may draw your own coffee. Mind the +machine; it tips if you are n't careful." +</P> + +<P> +She went to the window and peered out toward the stables. +</P> + +<P> +"May I ask, Daughter of Kings, where your sister has gone so suddenly?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly. She 's off for town to chase a cook and a few other people +to run this hotel. I heard at the post-office that the whole camp had +deserted, so I ran over to see what was doing; and just for that I 've +got to walk home." +</P> + +<P> +"But your aunt said that Providence would take care of the servant +question; she expected a whole corps of ideal servants to come straying +in during the day." +</P> + +<P> +Hezekiah laughed. (It is not right for any girl to be as pretty as +Hezekiah, or to laugh as musically.) She told me to sit down, and as I +did so she passed the toast and helped herself to a slice into which +she set her fine white teeth neatly, watching me with the merriest of +twinkles in her brown eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Cecilia has n't Aunt Octavia's confidence in Providence, so she 's +taking a shot at the employment agencies. She has left a note on the +kitchen table to inform Aunt Octavia that she had forgotten an +engagement with the dentist and has gone to catch the ten-eighteen." +</P> + +<P> +"That, Hezekiah, is a lie. It isn't quite square to deceive your aunt +that way," I remarked soberly. +</P> + +<P> +Hezekiah laughed again. +</P> + +<P> +"You absurdity! Don't you know Aunt Octavia yet! She will be +perfectly overjoyed when she comes back and finds that note from +Cecilia. She likes disappearances, mysteries, and all that kind of +thing. But it is barely possible that you will have to wash the +dishes. I can't, you see, for I 'm not supposed to come on the +reservation at all—not until Cecilia has found a husband. Is n't it +perfectly delicious?" +</P> + +<P> +"All of that, Daughter of Kings! I think that as soon as I can regain +confidence in my own sanity I shall like it myself. But,"—and I +watched her narrowly,—"you see, Hezekiah, there is really a ghost, you +know." +</P> + +<P> +Once more that divine mirth in her bubbled mellowly. She had walked +guardedly to the window and turned swiftly with a mockery of fear in +her face. +</P> + +<P> +"Aunt Octavia approaches, and I must be off. But that ghost, Mr. +Chimney-Man,—when you find him, please let me know. There are a lot +of things I want to ask some reliable ghost about the hereafter." +</P> + +<P> +With this she fled, and I heard the front door close smartly after her. +An instant later Miss Octavia appeared and asked solicitously how I +liked my omelette. +</P> + +<P> +"The coachman has been telling me a capital ghost-story. He believes +them to be beneficent and declares that he will under no circumstances +leave my employment." +</P> + +<P> +She sat down and folded her arms upon the table. For the first time I +believed that she was serious. There was, in fact, a troubled look on +her sweet, whimsical face. It occurred to me that the loss of her +servants was not really the slight matter she had previously made of it. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Ames, will you pardon me for asking you a question of the most +intimate character? It is only after much hesitation that I do so." +</P> + +<P> +I bowed encouragingly, my curiosity fully aroused. +</P> + +<P> +"You may ask me anything in the world, Miss Hollister." +</P> + +<P> +"Then I wish you would tell me whether,—I can't express the dislike I +feel in doing this,—but can you tell me whether you have seen in the +hands of my niece Cecilia a small—a very small, silver-backed +note-book." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I have," I answered, greatly surprised. +</P> + +<P> +"And may I ask whether,—and again I must plead my deep concern as an +excuse for making such an inquiry,—whether you by any chance saw her +making any notation in that book?" +</P> + +<P> +I recalled the silver-bound book perfectly, but had attached no +importance to it; but if Cecilia's fortunes were so intimately related +to it as Miss Hollister's manner implied, I felt that I must be careful +of my answer. I was trying to recall the precise moment at which I had +entered the library the preceding evening after Hume's departure, and +while I was intent upon this my silence must have been prolonged. I +felt obliged to make an answer of some sort, and yet I did not relish +the thought of conveying information that might distress and embarrass +a noble girl like Cecilia Hollister. Something in my face must have +conveyed a hint of this inner conflict to Miss Hollister, for she rose +suddenly, holding up her hand as though to silence me. She seemed +deeply moved, and cried in agitation:— +</P> + +<P> +"Do not answer me! The question was quite unfair,—quite unfair,—and +yet I assure you that at the moment I made the inquiry, I felt +justified." +</P> + +<P> +She retreated toward the door as I rose; and then with her composure +fully restored she courtesied gracefully. +</P> + +<P> +"Luncheon here will be a buffet affair to-day, as I shall be engaged +with matters of pastry. I'm sure, however, that you will find +employment until dinner-time, when my house will be fully in order +again." +</P> + +<P> +I intended that this should be a busy day, so without making +explanations I went to the stable, told the coachman I wished to be +driven to the station, and was soon whizzing over the hills toward +Katonah. The coachman, an Irishman, introduced the subject of the +ghost as soon as we were out of sight of the house. +</P> + +<P> +"The ole lady's dipped; she's dipped, sir," he remarked leadingly. +</P> + +<P> +"It's catching," I answered; "so you'd better forget it." +</P> + +<P> +He thereupon settled glumly to his driving. As we crossed the bridge +near where I had first encountered Hezekiah in the apple-orchard, I +spied her trudging across a meadow, and she waved her hand gaily. +Meadows and streams and stars! Of such were Hezekiah's kingdom. +</P> + +<P> +I wondered how Wiggins and the other gentlemen at the Prescott Arms +were faring. My question was partially answered a second later, as we +passed the road that forked off to the inn. On a stone by the roadside +sat Lord Arrowood, desolately guarding a kit-bag and a suit-case. He +was dressed in a shabby Norfolk jacket and knickerbockers, and sucked a +pipe. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-195"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-195.jpg" ALT="On a stone by the roadside sat Lord Arrowood." BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +On a stone by the roadside sat Lord Arrowood. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +I bade the driver pause, and greeted the nobleman affably. +</P> + +<P> +"Can I give you a lift? You seem to be bound for the station, and I'm +taking a train myself." +</P> + +<P> +"No, thanks," he replied sharply. "They're a lot of +bounders,—bounders, I say!" +</P> + +<P> +</P> + +<P> +</P> + +<P> +</P> + +<P> +"Ah! Of whom do you speak, Lord Arrowood?" I asked glancing at my +watch. +</P> + +<P> +"Those scoundrels at the inn. They have thrown me out. Thrown me +out—me!" +</P> + +<P> +"Hard lines, for a fact; but if you are interested in trains"— +</P> + +<P> +"I refuse to leave the county!" he shouted. "If they think they're +going to get rid of me they're mistaken. Bounders, I say, bounders!" +</P> + +<P> +He uttered this opprobrious term with great bitterness, and crossed his +legs, as though to emphasize his permanence upon the boulder. Patience +on a monument is not more eternally planted. He seemed in no mood for +conversation, so I sped on, with no time to lose. +</P> + +<P> +I gained the step of the chair-car attached to the ten-eighteen with +some loss of dignity, the porter yanking me aboard under the +conductor's scornful eye. The Katonah passengers were still in the +aisle, and as I surveyed them I saw Cecilia take a seat in the middle +of the car. She was just unfolding a newspaper when I moved to a seat +behind her and bade her good-morning. +</P> + +<P> +The look she gave me in turning round had in it something of Hezekiah's +quizzical humor. This interested me, because I had not previously seen +any but the most superficial resemblance between the sisters. Her +cheeks were aglow from her sprint on the wheel. The short skirt and +the shirt waist are the true vesture of emancipated woman. Cecilia +Hollister, whose apparel at home had struck me as rather formal, seemed +this morning quite a new being. She drew a folded veil from the pocket +of her jacket, removed her hat, and pinned the veil to it. She kept +the hat in her lap, however, and went on talking. +</P> + +<P> +"We are both truants. You must have breakfasted in a hurry to have +caught this train." +</P> + +<P> +"Not at all. I enjoyed a brief conversation with your sister, and +after she had gone, your aunt came back and lingered for a moment." +</P> + +<P> +"She told you, I suppose, that Providence would look after the servant +question." +</P> + +<P> +"She did, just that." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Providence is hardly equal to getting enough servants to run +that place, so I'm going to assist Providence a little." +</P> + +<P> +"You become the vicaress of Providence? I admire your spirit." +</P> + +<P> +"It's mere self-preservation. Aunt Octavia would have me chained to +the kitchen if I did n't do something about it." +</P> + +<P> +She had permitted me to settle with the conductor, and when I had +completed this transaction I found that she had drawn from her purse +the little silver booklet about which Miss Octavia had inquired so +anxiously. She held this close to her eyes, so that I had a clear view +of the silver backs, on one of which "C.H." was engraved in neat +script. The subjoined pencil she held poised ready for use, touching +the tip of it absent-mindedly to her tongue. She raised her eyes with +the far-away look still in them. +</P> + +<P> +"Can you tell me how to spell Arrowood,—is it one or two w's?" +</P> + +<P> +"One, I think the noble lord uses." +</P> + +<P> +She seemed to write the name, and I saw her counting on her fingers, +touching them lightly on the open page of the book. +</P> + +<P> +Then she dropped it into her purse, which she thrust back carefully +into her pocket. She sighed, and was silent for a moment. We were +passing a series of huge signs built like a barricade along the right +of way, and on one of these I observed with fresh interest an +advertisement whose counterpart I had seen often about New York, but +without ever observing it attentively. It drew a laugh from me now. +It represented an infant in a perambulator, behind which stood the +effigy of a capped and aproned nurse. A legend was inscribed on the +board to this effect:— +</P> + +<P CLASS="t2"> +HUSH! Baby's asleep.<BR> +It's a HOLLISTER PERAMBULATOR!<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"If it's a Hollister," I remarked as a second of these flew by the +window, "it's perfect." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, those things!" she exclaimed. +</P> + +<P> +"I was n't referring to the perambulator necessarily. Anything that's +Hollister must be good." +</P> + +<P> +"We're out of the business, except that Aunt Octavia gets a dollar for +every one that's made; but the trust keeps the name." +</P> + +<P> +"The trust could hardly change your name. You will have to do that +yourself." +</P> + +<P> +"You've been talking to Hezekiah. That's the way people always talk to +her." +</P> + +<P> +"It's certainly not the way I've been talking to you; but we've run +away from school, and I'm disposed to make the most of it. Our +conversation at your aunt's has been so high up in the air, that it's +pleasant to come down to earth and tune it to the less strenuous note +of a twentieth-century railway journey." +</P> + +<P> +"That, Mr. Ames, may depend upon the point of view." +</P> + +<P> +"But you will make it yours, won't you? You see, I've always dreamed +of adventures, but since I met your aunt in the Asolando they've been +coming a little too fast. There's that ghost business. Now I 'm going +to catch that ghost to-night, if it's the last thing I do!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I'm not the ghost, and neither is my father, if that's what's in +your mind. Tell me just what you have seen and heard." +</P> + +<P> +I gave her the story in detail, and my recital seemed to amuse her +greatly. +</P> + +<P> +"You thought it was Aunt Octavia herself at first, then you thought I +was the spook, and now you are not fully persuaded that it is not my +father. I will take you into my confidence this far—that I don't know +how father got into the house last night. He wrote a note asking me to +meet him on the roof and bring the foils. That was not unlike him, as +he is the dearest father in the world, and his whims are just as jolly +in their way as Aunt Octavia's. I was sure that Aunt Octavia had +retired for the night, so I changed my dress and carried the foils up +through the trunk-room. I had hardly reached there before my father +appeared. The whole situation—my being there and all that—has +distressed father a great deal; so I let you see me cry a little. I +promise never to do it again." +</P> + +<P> +Mirth brightened the eyes she turned upon me now. +</P> + +<P> +"You think," she asked, "that those lights could n't have winked out +twice by themselves while you were on the stairway." +</P> + +<P> +"I am positive of it. And somebody—a being of some sort—passed me on +the stairway. It might imaginably have been you!" +</P> + +<P> +"But I tell you positively it was not." +</P> + +<P> +"Then it might have been your father. A man who can enter a house at +will might easily play any manner of other tricks. His disappearance +after I had gone down into the house with him was just as mysterious as +the ghost." +</P> + +<P> +"It was natural for father not to want you to know how he got in; the +motive for that would be the fact that he is not supposed to see me or +communicate with me in any way. But you 've got to get a +ghost-<I>motif</I>." +</P> + +<P> +"I think I have one," I said. +</P> + +<P> +"Then all the rest is easy. To whom does this ghost-<I>motif</I> lead you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I need hardly say; for it must have occurred to you that there is one +member of the Hollister family we have n't mentioned in this +connection." +</P> + +<P> +"If you mean Hezekiah"— +</P> + +<P> +"None other!" +</P> + +<P> +The surprise in her face was not feigned,—I was confident of +this,—and the questions evoked by my answer at once danced in her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"If Hezekiah should be caught in the house just now we should all pay +dearly for her rashness. Believe me, this is true. Some day you may +know the whys and wherefores; at present no one may know. There is +this, however,—if Hezekiah or my father should be found at Hopefield +Manor, anywhere on the premises, while I am there, the consequences +would be disastrous,—more so than I dare tell you. But why should +Hezekiah wish to prowl about there at night,—to assume for a moment +that she is doing it?" +</P> + +<P> +Her manner was wholly earnest. It was plain that she had entered into +some sort of a compact with her aunt, and no doubt the arrangement was +in the characteristic whimsical vein of which I had enjoyed personal +experience. I did not wish to press Cecilia for explanations she might +not be free to make, but I ventured a suggestion or two. +</P> + +<P> +"Hezekiah may be entering the house and playing ghost for amusement, +merely in a spirit of childish rebellion against the interdiction that +forbids her the house. That is quite plausible, Hezekiah being the +spirited young person we know her to be. And it may amuse her, too, to +plug the chimneys at a time when her sister is enjoying the visits of +suitors. Without quite realizing that such was her animus, she may be +the least,—the very least bit jealous!" +</P> + +<P> +Cecilia flushed and her eyes flashed indignantly. She bent toward me +eagerly. +</P> + +<P> +"Please do not say such a thing! You must not even think it!" +</P> + +<P> +"She may be a little forlorn, alone in your father's house over the +hills at times when you are surrounded by admirers, and it is my +assumption from what I have learned in one way and another of your +flight abroad last summer, that some of these gentlemen now established +at the Prescott Arms are known to her." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, all of them, certainly." +</P> + +<P> +"And Hartley Wiggins among the rest?" +</P> + +<P> +"That, Mr. Ames, is most unkind," she declared earnestly. "She has +told me that she was not in the least interested in Mr. Wiggins." +</P> + +<P> +"And she told me the same thing, but I do not feel sure of it! But +what if she is! You are not really interested in him yourself!" +</P> + +<P> +In the library at Hopefield Manor I should not have thought of speaking +to Cecilia Hollister in any such fashion; but the flying train gave +wings to my daring. I was surprised at my own temerity, and more +surprised that she did not seem to resent my new manner of speech. She +did not, however, vouchsafe any reply to my statement, but changed the +subject abruptly. +</P> + +<P> +My description of the ghost had taken considerable time, and we were +now running through the tunnels and would soon be at the end of our +journey. She put on her hat and veil without making it necessary for +us to discontinue our talk. A certain languor that had marked her at +her aunt's vanished. There was a clearer light in her eye, and as I +helped her into her coat I felt that here was a woman to whose high +qualities I had done scant justice. +</P> + +<P> +"I count on finishing my errand and taking the two-seven," she remarked. +</P> + +<P> +"That's a short time to allow yourself. I've heard that it's a dreary +business chasing the employment agencies." +</P> + +<P> +"Not if you know where not to go. If you 'll get me a machine of some +sort I 'll be off at once." +</P> + +<P> +"I fear I shan't conclude my own business so soon; but if you will +honor me at luncheon?"— +</P> + +<P> +This last was at the door of a taxicab I had found for her. +</P> + +<P> +"Sorry, Mr. Ames, but it's out of the question. I hope to see you at +dinner to-night. And please"— +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Miss Hollister"— +</P> + +<P> +"Please remember that you are Aunt Octavia's guest, and don't annoy her +by failing to appear at dinner. You know you have n't fixed that +chimney yet!" +</P> + +<P> +Her smile left me well in the air; I stood staring after the very +commonplace cab as it rolled away with her, my mind a whirling chaos of +emotion. The crowd jostled me impatiently; for other people, not +breathing celestial ether from an hour of Cecilia Hollister's society, +were bent upon the day's business. +</P> + +<P> +I set off at once for Pepperton's office, where I learned that the +architect was out of town; but his chief clerk greeted me courteously. +I told him frankly that I wanted to look at the plans of Hopefield +Manor to enable me to learn the exact lines of the chimneys. He +confessed surprise that they were causing trouble, and expressed regret +that they were not in the office. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Hollister sent for them this morning, and I have just given them +to a young woman who bore a note from her. Ordinarily I should not +have let them go, but the note was peremptory, and Miss Hollister is a +friend of Mr. Pepperton's, you know, and a person I'm sure he would not +refuse. We're at work now on plans for a cathedral she proposes +building for the Bishop of Manila." +</P> + +<P> +I was not surprised that Octavia Hollister should be building +cathedrals in the Orient,—I was beyond that,—but I was taken aback to +find that she had anticipated me in my rush for the plans of her house. +Clearly, I was dealing with a woman who was not only immensely amusing +but exceedingly shrewd as well. Could it be possible after all that +she was herself playing ghost merely for her own entertainment! She +was capable of it; but I had satisfied myself that she could not have +performed the tricks of which I had been the victim the night previous +unless she possessed some rare vanishing power like that of the East +Indian mystics. +</P> + +<P> +"May I ask who came for the plans?" +</P> + +<P> +"I judged the young woman to be a maid, or perhaps she was Miss +Hollister's secretary." +</P> + +<P> +I had given little heed during my short stay at Hopefield Manor to Miss +Hollister's personal attendant. I had passed her in the halls once or +twice, a young woman of twenty-five, I should say, fair-haired and +blue-eyed. She might herself be the ghost, now that I thought of it; +but this seemed the most unlikely hypothesis possible,—and there was +no difficulty in accounting for her flight to town, for there were many +horses and vehicles in the Hopefield stable, and trains were frequent. +</P> + +<P> +"If there is anything further, Mr. Ames"— +</P> + +<P> +I roused myself to find the chief clerk regarding me impatiently, and I +thanked him and hurried away. +</P> + +<P> +At my own office my assistant pounced upon me wrathfully. He was half +wild over the pressure of vexatious business, and had just been +engaging in a long-distance conversation with a country gentleman at +Lenox which had left him in bad temper. I was explaining to him the +seriousness of my errands at Hopefield, rather unconvincingly I fear, +and the fact that I must return at once, when the office-boy entered my +private room to say that three gentlemen wished to see me immediately. +They had submitted cards, but had refused to state the nature of their +business. It was with a distinct sensation of surprise that I read the +names respectively of Percival B. Shallenberger, Daniel P. Ormsby, and +John Stewart Dick. +</P> + +<P> +"Show the gentlemen in," I said promptly, greatly to the disgust of my +assistant, who retired to deal with several clients whom I had passed +in the reception-room fiercely walking the floor. +</P> + +<P> +I had imagined all the suitors established at the Prescott Arms. As +the three appeared clad in light automobiling coats, I could not +forbear a smile at their grim appearance. Shallenberger, the novelist, +and Ormsby, the knit-goods manufacturer, were big men; Dick was much +shorter, though of compact and sturdy build. They growled surlily in +response to my greeting, and Ormsby closed the door behind them. Dick +seemed to be the designated spokesman, and he advanced to the desk +behind which I sat, with a stride and manner that advertised his +belligerent frame of mind. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Ames," he began, "we have come here to speak for ourselves and +certain other gentlemen who are staying for a time at the Prescott +Arms." +</P> + +<P> +"Gentlemen of the committee, welcome to our office," I replied, greatly +amused by his ferocity. +</P> + +<P> +My tone caused the others to draw in defensively behind him. +</P> + +<P> +"We want you to understand that your conduct in accompanying a lady +that I shall not name to the city is an act we cannot pass in silence. +Your conduct in going to Hopefield Manor was in itself an affront to +us, but your behavior this morning passes all bounds. We have come, +sir, to demand an explanation!" +</P> + +<P> +At a glance this was a situation I dare not take seriously. In any +circumstances the fact that these men had followed me to my office to +rebuke me for accompanying Cecilia Hollister to town was absurd. This +young Mr. Dick was absurd in himself. His gray cap had twisted itself +oddly to the side of his head, and a bang of black hair lay at a +piratical angle across his forehead. Behind him Ormsby, the knit-goods +man, tugged at a brown moustache; Shallenberger's blue eyes snapped +wrathfully. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Dick," I said soberly, "I have heard of you as the original +pragmatist of Nebraska, and as I am a mere ignorant chimney-doctor, to +whom the later philosophical meaning of that term is only so much punk, +I must identify you with that more obvious meaning of the word which is +within my grasp. Mr. Dick, and gentlemen of the committee, you are +meddlesome persons!" +</P> + +<P> +"Meddlesome!" cried Dick, heatedly, and leaning toward me across my +desk, "do I correctly understand, sir, that you mean to insult us?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing could be further from my purpose. But I cannot permit you to +imagine that I'm going to allow you to beard me in my office and +criticise my conduct in regard to Miss Cecilia Hollister or anybody +else. As a philosopher from the fertile corn-lands of Nebraska, I +salute you with admiration; as a critic of my ways and manners, I show +you the door!" +</P> + +<P> +This I did a bit jauntily, and I had a feeling that I was playing my +part well. But the young man before me seemed to swell with the rage +that surged within him. He broke out furiously, beating the air with +his fist. +</P> + +<P> +"You not only insult this committee, but you speak with intentional +disrespect of my native state, and of the great philosophical school of +which I am a disciple. Am I right?" +</P> + +<P> +"You are eminently right, Mr. Dick. Neither the corn, the +philosophical schools, nor the packing-house statistics of your native +Omaha interest me a particle. So far as I am personally concerned you +may go back to your wigwam on the tawny Missouri as soon as you please." +</P> + +<P> +"Then," he broke forth explosively, "then, sir, by Minerva's pale brow, +and by all the gods at once, I brand you"— +</P> + +<P> +"Put the brand on hot, little one! Make it a good strong curse while +you're about it!" +</P> + +<P> +He choked with rage for a moment; then he controlled himself with +painful effort. +</P> + +<P> +"My personal grievances must wait," continued Dick, brokenly, "but +speaking for the committee I wish to say that your attentions to the +young lady whom you have dared, sir, to name, are obnoxious to us." +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing less than that!" added Shallenberger. +</P> + +<P> +"We will not stand for it," growled Ormsby's heavy bass. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Shallenberger," I replied evenly, "as a member of the great +Hoosier school of novelists I have the most profound respect for your +talents. My office-boy is dead to the world for weeks after the +appearance of a novel from your pen. But your interference in my +private affairs is beyond all reason. And as for you, Mr. Ormsby, I +dare say your knit-goods are worthy of the fame of the pent-up Utica +from which you come. But to you and all of you, I bid defiance. I +return to Hopefield Manor by the four-fourteen express." +</P> + +<P> +I rose and bowed coldly in dismissal; but the trio stood their ground +stubbornly. +</P> + +<P> +"I tell you, sir, our organization is complete!" declared Dick. "We +signed a gentleman's agreement only last night, for the express purpose +of excluding you, and you cannot enter as a competitor. You are only +an outsider, and we don't intend to have you interfering with our +affairs." +</P> + +<P> +"By the pink left ear of Venus!" I blurted, "is it a trust?" +</P> + +<P> +"You put it coarsely, Mr. Ames, but"— +</P> + +<P> +"A suitors' trust? Then if I read the newspapers correctly, your +organization is against public policy and in contravention of the +anti-trust law. But may I inquire why, if you have perfected a +combination of Miss Hollister's suitors, I found Lord Arrowood this +morning sitting on a stone by the roadside, evidently in the greatest +dejection. Can it be possible that an insurgent has crept into your +organization and incurred the displeasure of the regulars?" +</P> + +<P> +"We ruled him out," Shallenberger burst forth, "because he was a +foreigner and not entitled to a place among free-born Americans! That +is one reason; and for another, the colors of his half-hose were an +offense to me, personally." +</P> + +<P> +"And for another reason," interposed Ormsby, "he had no money with +which to pay his board at the Prescott Arms. For this just cause the +landlord ejected him shortly after breakfast this morning." +</P> + +<P> +"Then there is already a rift in the lute!" I returned. "No trust of +suitors is stronger than its weakest link. By the bloody footprints of +our forefathers on the snows of Valley Forge, I stand for the right of +the American girl to choose where she will. You may perch on the hills +about Hopefield Manor, and besiege Cecilia Hollister till the end of +time, but my hand is raised against your unrighteous compact, and I am +in the fight to stay! Go back to the Prescott Arms, gentlemen, and +assure your associates in this hideous compact of my most distinguished +consideration and tell them to go to the devil." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +I had gone to the St. Parvenu Hotel to call upon a Washington lady who +had been making life a burden to my assistant, and on coming out into +Fifth Avenue shortly after one, bethought me of the Asolando Tea-Room. +My interview with the committee of the suitors had driven from my mind +practically every consideration and every interest not centred in +Hopefield Manor. My thoughts turned gratefully to the Asolando, where +only a few days ago I had been precipitated into the strangest +adventures my eventless life had known. +</P> + +<P> +A strange face was visible at the cashier's desk as I entered the +tea-room. I passed on, finding the place quite full, but I took it as +a good omen that the seventh table from the right was unoccupied, and I +hastily appropriated it. A waitress appeared promptly, murmuring,— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"There are no birds in last year's nest,"—<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +and recommended a Locker-Lampson sandwich, whose contents the girl told +me were secret, but it proved to be wholly palatable. As I drank my +tea and ate the sandwich I surveyed the decorated menu card with +interest, and found pleasurable excitement in discovering an item +directing attention to "Pickles <I>à la</I> Hezekiah, 15 cents." +</P> + +<P> +The delightful Hezekiah must, then, have impressed herself upon the +<I>deus ex machina</I> of the Asolando on her brief day there, thus to have +won this recognition. And further on I noted, among the desserts, +<I>Pêche Cécilie</I>, with even greater interest and satisfaction. Miss +Hollister's nieces were among ten thousand young women, and it was +quite believable that their brief tenure of office in the tea-room had +fixed them permanently in the heart of the unknown proprietor. +</P> + +<P> +The girl at the cash-desk was reading, her head bent as demurely as +Hezekiah's had been on that memorable afternoon; but I did not care for +the stranger's profile. I tried to fancy Cecilia in cap and apron +serving these tables, but my imagination was not equal to the task. +</P> + +<P> +Cecilia occupied my mind now. The visit of the furious suitors to my +office had stirred in me thoughts and aspirations that had never known +harborage in my breast before. The presumption of those fellows had +exceeded anything I had known in my contact with human kind, and +instead of frightening me away from Hopefield Manor, they had called my +own attention to the strategic importance of my present position as a +guest in Miss Octavia's house. Here was a siege of suitors indeed; but +I was resolved to make the most of my position within the barricade. +</P> + +<P> +As these thoughts ran through my mind, I was finishing my <I>Pêche +Cécilie</I> (I spurn all sweets ordinarily), when I became interested in +the unusual conduct of a young woman who had entered the front door +briskly and walked with a business-like air to the cashier's desk. The +girl within the wicket rose promptly, opened the screen, and without +parley of any sort, emptied the contents of her till into the visitor's +reticule. With a nod and a smile and a moment's careless survey of the +room, the girl departed, swinging the reticule in her hand. A long +roll she carried under her arm confirmed my identification. It was +Miss Octavia Hollister's Swedish maid; and the roll, beyond +peradventure, contained the plans she had obtained at Pepperton's +office. +</P> + +<P> +The girl was well-featured, neat of figure, and becomingly gowned, and +as I watched her leave the shop the lightness of her step, something +smooth and flowing in her movements, interested me. I did not know +what business she had to be robbing the Asolando money-drawer, but it +was altogether possible that she was the Hopefield ghost! +</P> + +<P> +On the whole, when I had finally torn myself away from my +assistant,—who made no attempt to conceal his doubts as to my +sanity,—and had settled myself in the four-fourteen express with the +afternoon papers, I was fully satisfied with the day's adventures. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE RIDDLE OF THE SIBYL'S LEAVES +</H4> + +<P> +I had told the coachman in the morning not to trouble to meet me on my +return, and I engaged the village liveryman to drive me to the house +for hire. As we approached Hopefield I saw the Napoleonic figure of +John Stewart Dick in the roadway. He had evidently been waiting for +me. He held up his hand with the superb, impersonal scorn of a Fifth +Avenue policeman, and the driver checked his horse. +</P> + +<P> +"I gave you warning," he said impressively. "If you return to the +house the consequences will be upon your own head." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you," I replied courteously. "You lay yourself open to the +severest penalties of the law in attempting to intimidate me. I have +enlisted for the whole campaign. Sick chimneys require my immediate +professional attention. If my bark sink, 't is to another sea. Be +good, dear child, let those who will be clever; and kindly omit +flowers." +</P> + +<P> +As the driver slapped his reins, Dick sprang out of the way, muttering +words that proved the shallowness of his philosophic temper. The +liveryman expressed his disapproval of the pragmatist in profane terms +as we entered the grounds. +</P> + +<P> +"There's a heap o' talk in the village," he observed. "They do say the +old lady 's cracked, if I may so speak of her; and that there's ghosts +in the house. And the conduct of the gentlemen at the Prescott is most +remarkable. The word 's passed that they're all dippy about the young +Miss Hollister that lives with her aunt. I reckon all rich people are +a bit cracked. It appears to go with the money. Mr. Bassford +Hollister,—he's the old lady's brother,—he's just as bad as any of +'em. I've drove in these parts fifteen year, and I 've worked a heap +for the rich, but I never seen nothin' like the Hollisters. They say +Mr. Bassford is about broke now. Had his share of the baby-wagon money +and blew it in, and now the old lady's marryin' off the girls and he +gets no money out of her if he takes a hand in that game. She's doin' +it to suit herself. That Bassford is always up to somethin' queer. +Yesterday he sat in the village street countin' the number of people he +saw chewin' gum. Hung around the school-house watchin' the children to +see how many had their jaws goin'. Takin' notes just like the census +man and tax assessor. Told our doctor in the village he was figurin' +the amount of horse-power the American people put into gum-chewing +every year, and expects to find some way of usin' it to run machinery. +It's harmless, Doc says. He calls it just the Hollister idiosyncrasy, +if that's the word. But I reckon it's idiotsyncrasy all right. I wish +you good luck of your place, sir." +</P> + +<P> +He evidently believed me to be some sort of upper servant, and this +added to my joy of the day. With my good humor augmented by the +interview, I entered the house. A strange footman admitted me, and I +went to my room at once without meeting any one else. +</P> + +<P> +The man followed me with a penciled note, signed with Cecilia's +initials, requesting my presence below as soon as possible, as she +wished to see me before dinner. The thought that she wished to see me +at any time filled me with elation; and her few lines scratched on a +correspondence card were a pleasing addendum to our conversation of the +morning. I only wondered whether I should find her the sober, reserved +young woman of our earlier acquaintance, or whether she would choose to +renew the good comradeship of our talk on the train. The finding of my +assistant's telegraphed resignation on my dressing-table, to take +effect in January, had not the slightest effect upon the lofty minarets +in which my fancy now found lodgment. It pleased me to believe that +fighting blood still pulsed in the last of the house of Ames, and that +I had hurled defiance at the organized band of suitors that guarded the +Hopefield gates and picketed the surrounding hills. +</P> + +<P> +My question as to which Cecilia I should find in the library was +quickly answered. Her frank smile, the candor of her eyes, confessed a +new tie between us; we were becoming conspirators within the main +conspiracy, whatever its character might be. +</P> + +<P> +"As to Providence and the cook—what luck?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I managed that very easily. I ran into some friends who were +going abroad for the winter. They have a staff of unusual servants, +and were anxious to keep them together until their return. I promptly +engaged them all, and they are even now installed. I came up on the +train with them, and as they are unusually intelligent and biddable, +they agreed to stray in in a casual and desultory way through the +afternoon. Aunt Octavia really believed, or pretended she did, which +is just as good, that Providence had sent them, and was delighted. The +laundress—the last to appear—has just arrived, and Aunt Octavia is in +fine humor. She did n't even ask me how I came off in my encounter at +the dentist's. She had filled the pie-pantry and had a good time while +I was gone." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I have had an adventure of my own," I remarked, after expressing +my relief that she had solved the servant difficulty with so much ease. +"A committee of gentlemen waited on me in my office on a matter of +grave importance." +</P> + +<P> +She lifted her brows, and folded her hands upon her knees—it was a +pretty way she had. +</P> + +<P> +"Was it the freedom of the city, or some high recognition of your +professional ability, Mr. Ames?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, far more exciting! Three gentlemen, representing the suitors' +trust now maintaining headquarters at the Prescott Arms, warned me +solemnly to keep off the grass. In other words, I am not to interfere +with their designs upon the heart of Miss Cecilia Hollister." +</P> + +<P> +She flung open a fan, held it at arm's length, and scrutinized the +daffodils that were traced upon it. +</P> + +<P> +"So they dared you?" +</P> + +<P> +"So they dared me. And I took the dare." +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" +</P> + +<P> +Her eyes met mine gravely, but behind her pretty <I>moue</I> a smile lurked +delightfully. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-221"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-221.jpg" ALT="Her eyes met mine gravely." BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +Her eyes met mine gravely. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"If I should tell you now it would be flirting, which is a sin." +</P> + +<P> +"I had imagined, Mr. Ames, that that sort of thing came easy to you. +But if it's sinful, of course"— +</P> + +<P> +"But you do not rule me out! You will give me a chance"— +</P> + +<P> +My earnestness caused her manner to change suddenly. Her beautiful +gravity came like a swift falling of starlit twilight. I had never +been so happy as at this moment. Preposterous as were the +circumstances of my presence in the house, the juxtaposition of Cecilia +Hollister gave me unalloyed delight. The animosity of the gentlemen at +the Prescott Arms—an animosity which the interview in my office had +doubtless intensified—quickened my satisfaction in thus being within +the walls that guarded the lady of their adoration. She had not +answered me, and I felt my heart pounding in the silence. +</P> + +<P> +"I want to serve you, now, hereafter, and always," I added. "These men +can have no claim upon you greater than that of any other man who +dares!" +</P> + +<P> +"No, none whatever," she replied firmly. +</P> + +<P> +"And the mystery, the whole story, is in the little silver book!" +</P> + +<P> +She started, flushed, and then laughter visited her lips and eyes. The +book was not in her hands nor in sight anywhere, but I felt that I was +on the right track, and that the little trinket had to do with her +plight and her compact with her aunt. Best of all, the fact that I had +chanced upon this clue gave her happiness. There was no debating that. +</P> + +<P> +"You had best have a care, Mr. Ames. You have spoken words that would +be treasonable if they came from me, and I must not countenance them." +</P> + +<P> +"But you will tolerate from me words that you would not permit another +to speak? Do I go too far?" +</P> + +<P> +She bent her head to one side,—with the slightest inclination, as of a +rose touched by a vagrant wind. +</P> + +<P> +"If I could only half believe in you," she said, "you might really +serve me. So those gentlemen warned you away! Their presumption is +certainly astounding." +</P> + +<P> +"They know nothing of the silver book!" +</P> + +<P> +"They know less than you do,—and you have a good deal to learn, you +know." +</P> + +<P> +"I am dull enough, but I have no ambition but to read the riddle of the +sibyl's leaves. That and the laying of the ghost are my immediate +business. As for the gentlemen at the Prescott, including my old +friend Hartley Wiggins, I am not in the least afraid of them. My hand +is raised against them. If it's a case of the test of Ulysses over +again, I 'm as likely as any of them to bend the bow." +</P> + +<P> +I thought this well spoken, but she seemed amused, though without +unkindness, by the earnestness of my speech. +</P> + +<P> +"If your wit is equal to your valor, you may go far. But"—and she +turned her eyes full upon me—"we must play the game according to the +rules." +</P> + +<P> +"And as for Hartley Wiggins"— +</P> + +<P> +She sat up very straight, and the sudden disdain in her face startled +me. I had forgotten my eavesdropping in the clump of raspberries on +the day of my arrival. Certainly Wiggins had been decidedly in the +race then, and my heart thumped in resentment as I recalled her own +message, all compact of encouragement, which I had borne to Wiggins at +the Prescott Arms. +</P> + +<P> +"I will tell you something, Mr. Ames. This afternoon, as I drove from +the station, I came round by the lake, merely to cool my eyes on the +water, and I saw Mr. Wiggins and my sister seated on a wall in an old +orchard. They were so busily engaged that they did not see me. At +least he did not; but I think Hezekiah did." +</P> + +<P> +"Hezekiah," I answered, relieved by the nature of her disclosure, which +could not but prejudice Wiggins' case, "Hezekiah is fond of orchards. +I dare say this was the same one in which I had a charming talk with +her myself. Doubtless she was amusing herself with Wiggins just as she +did with me. She finds the genus homo entertaining." +</P> + +<P> +"She is the dearest girl in the world,—the sweetest, the loveliest, +the brightest. Mr. Wiggins has treated her outrageously. He has taken +advantage of her youth and susceptible nature." +</P> + +<P> +"His punishment is sure," I answered complacently. "Hezekiah laughed +when I mentioned his name. And you frown to-day at the thought of him." +</P> + +<P> +"Aunt Octavia is coming," she remarked, feigning at once a careless +air; but I was content that she let my remark pass unchallenged. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Octavia's entrances were always effective. She appeared to-night +charmingly gowned, but the bright twinkle in her eyes made it clear +that no matter of dress could affect her humor or spirit. She greeted +me, as she always did, as though our acquaintance were a matter of +years rather than of days. I even imagined that she seemed pleased to +find me back again. She asked no questions as to my day's occupations, +but as we went in to dinner sallied forth cheerfully upon a description +of her own activities. +</P> + +<P> +"After I had baked my required quota of pies this morning, I sought +recreation at the traps. The stable-boy who has been pulling the +string for me having struck-work, it most providentially happened that +I espied Lord Arrowood hanging on the edge of the maple tangle beyond +the barn. I summoned him at once and put him to work managing the +traps for me, finding him most efficient. He seemed extremely +despondent, and after I had satisfied myself that two out of three was +not an impossible record for one of my years, I brought him to the +house and made tea for him. I left the room for a moment—I had taken +him into the kitchen where, during the incumbency of the regular cook I +hardly dare venture myself, and he made himself comfortable quite near +the range. The pies on which I had been engaged all morning lay +cooling near him. I had composed twenty-nine pies,—I am an excellent +mathematician, and I could not have been mistaken in the count. What +was my amazement to find, after his lordship's departure, that one pie +was missing! The pan in which it was baked I discerned later, jammed +into a barrel of excellent Minnesota flour. My absence from the room +was the briefest; his lordship must indeed be a prestidigitateur to +have made way with the pie so expeditiously." +</P> + +<P> +"His lordship was doubtless hungry," I suggested. "Even nobility must +eat. I passed Lord Arrowood in the highway early this morning, sitting +upon a stone, with sundry items of hand-baggage reposing beside him. I +have rarely seen any one so depressed." +</P> + +<P> +"He belongs to an ancient house," remarked Miss Octavia. "He is +descended from either Hengist or Horsa,—I forget which, but it does +not greatly matter. The missing pie, I may add, was an effect in +Westchester pippin; and as our American experiment in self-government +bores him, I take it as significant that he chanced upon food that is +the veritable sacrament of democracy." +</P> + +<P> +"Now that the little matter of the servants has been adjusted, we must +have a care lest the newly-arrived phalanx, which Providence so kindly +sent to you to-day, is not stampeded by any further manifestations of +the troubled spirit of the unfortunate Briton who was hanged on the +site of this house." +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Ames," replied Miss Octavia impressively, "that matter is entirely +in your hands." +</P> + +<P> +"But if I could see the plans of this house, I should be better able to +grapple with his ghostship." +</P> + +<P> +I had thrown this out in the hope of eliciting some remark from her +touching the Swedish maid's visit to Pepperton's office; but Miss +Octavia met my gaze unflinchingly. +</P> + +<P> +"You are a clever man, Mr. Ames, and I have every confidence that you +will not only solve the mystery of the library chimney but find the +ghost that switched off the lights on the stair last night. I prefer +that you should accomplish these feats without any help from the plans. +I myself have no suggestions. I am gratified that you are meeting the +emergencies that have risen here with so much determination, but it is +what I should expect of the son of Arnold Ames of Hartford. +Opportunity is all that any of us need to find ourselves truly great, +and if, in the ordinary course of our lives, the gate does not open +freely, we are justified in picking the lock. When I determined to +seek adventures in my old age, I resolved that I should miss no chance, +and that I should be prepared for any beckoning of the hand of fate. +An odd fancy struck me at the beginning of my new life that Boston +would some day be the starting-point of some interesting experience. +This has not yet developed, but in order that I may be prepared for +anything that may occur I keep a blue-silk umbrella constantly checked +at the Parker House. The presence of the little brass check in my +purse is a constant reminder that Boston may one day call me." +</P> + +<P> +A discussion of the Parker House umbrella followed, Cecilia and I +joining, and it proved so fruitful a topic that it carried us to our +coffee. +</P> + +<P> +Coffee-making, in a machine she had herself contrived, was always +attended with rites that required deliberation, and while she performed +them Miss Hollister continued to amuse us. +</P> + +<P> +"You may not know," she remarked, in one of her charming irrelevant +outbursts, "that the most important furniture transactions effected in +this country are those negotiated daily by the head-waiters of the +Fifth Avenue restaurants. Such is, I assure you, the fact. These +gentlemen, who have attained front rank among our predatory rich, allow +no one to dine at the inns they dominate who does not first purchase a +table and chairs at a profit of at least two hundred per cent over the +original Grand Rapids cost, the furniture thus purchased reverting in +every case to the party of the first part after the purchasers have +eaten to their satisfaction. The Fifth Avenue head-waiters are not +only the most absolute autocrats of our time, but the most acute +students of human nature among us. The sale of the tables by the lords +of the dining-rooms is alone worth a fortune every season at our +fashionable victualing houses and, in addition, the humbler members of +the minor orders of waiters, who merely fetch and carry, are obliged to +share their gratuities with their august chiefs." +</P> + +<P> +"The system is iniquitous," I declared. "It's enough to pay two prices +for the food without buying the hotel furniture." +</P> + +<P> +"The system, Mr. Ames, is wholly admirable, if you will pardon me for +expressing a difference of opinion. We cannot do less than admire the +austere genius before which mere plutocrats and men of affairs meekly +bow. In making my own investments I would rather have the advice of +Alphonse at the Hotel Pallida than that of the president of the +strongest trust company on Manhattan Island. The varying size of the +sums he receives for the dining-room furniture is the best possible +indication of the condition of the market. When a citizen of Pittsburg +will pay no more than one hundred dollars for the use of a table to eat +from at the Pallida you may be sure that a panic impends. By the way, +I proposed to Alphonse last winter the organization of a limited +company of leading head-waiters to control the waiting industry of +Fifth Avenue. It was my idea that some special forms of torture might +be devised for calculating persons—usually readers of New York letters +in provincial newspapers—who think a waiter entitled to only ten per +cent of the bill, and this could best be managed by an arrangement +between the five or six magnates who control the more gilded and +imposing refectories. I suggested the placing of a special mark in the +hats of the ten-per-cent fiends, so that wherever they dine the symbol +of their indiscreet frugalities would be apparent to the initiated eye. +It is another of my notions that the head-waiter and his humble slave +should present a formal bill for their services, while the hotel or +restaurant should merely be tipped. In this way the more important +service would receive its due consideration. The sole office of the +proprietor is to provide the head-waiter a place in which to follow his +profession. Alphonse is impressed with my ideas, and has even offered +to make me a director of the company." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose that you won the regard of Alphonse, the magnificent, only +by the most princely tips through many years of acquaintance, Miss +Hollister." +</P> + +<P> +"On the other hand, Mr. Ames, I never gave him a cent in my life; but +last Christmas, in recognition of his friendliness in warning me +against an alligator-pear salad, at a moment when that vegetable was at +the turn of the season, I knit him a pair of blue worsted bed-room +slippers, which he received with the liveliest expressions of delight." +</P> + +<P> +Three suitors were announced at this moment, and I slipped away without +excuses, while Miss Octavia and Cecilia adjourned to the library. +</P> + +<P> +The ghost, I had sworn, should not baffle me another night. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap13"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XIII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +I DISCOVER TWO GHOSTS +</H4> + +<P> +As I crossed the second-floor hall, I passed the Swedish maid, walking +toward Miss Octavia's room. I was somewhat annoyed to find, on looking +over my shoulder to make sure of her destination, that she, too, had +paused, her hand on Miss Octavia's door, and was watching me with +interest. She vanished immediately; but to throw her off the track I +went to my own room, closed the door noisily, and then came out quickly +and ran up to the third floor. +</P> + +<P> +Bassford Hollister's mysterious exit had lingered in my mind as the +most curious incident of the eventful Friday night. Having been +baffled in my effort to get hold of the architect's plans, my thought +now was to await in the upper part of the house a repetition of the +various phenomena that had so puzzled me. By the process of exclusion +I had eliminated nearly every plausible theory, but if the ghost +manifested himself with any sort of periodicity (and the hour of the +chimney's queer behavior had been nine) I was now prepared to meet him +in the regions he had chosen for his exploits. When it is remembered +that I had always been most timorous, not at all anxious to shine in +any heroic performances, it will be understood that the atmosphere of +Hopefield Manor was exerting a stimulating effect upon my courage. Or, +more likely, my inherent cowardice had been brought into subjection by +my curiosity. +</P> + +<P> +I had a pretty accurate knowledge by this time of the position and +function of all the electric switches between the lower hall and the +fourth floor, but I tested them as I ascended, glancing down now and +then to make sure I was not observed. From the sound of voices in the +library I judged that most of Cecilia's suitors must now have arrived, +and so much the better, I argued; for with Miss Octavia and her niece +fully occupied, I could the better carry on my ghost-hunt above stairs. +</P> + +<P> +At a quarter before nine I switched off the lights on the third and +fourth floors, and established myself at the head of the stairway, and +quite near the trunk-room door. This door I had opened, as I fancied +that if Bassford Hollister were at the bottom of the business, he would +probably wish to find his way to the roof again. So far as I was able +to manage it, the stage was in readiness for the entrance of the +goblin. And I may record my impression, that as we wait for a +visitation of this sort, it is with a degree of credence in things +supernatural, to which we would not ordinarily confess. In spite of +ourselves we expect something to appear, something unearthly, +impalpable, and unresponsive to those tests we apply to the known and +understood. +</P> + +<P> +The clock below struck nine upon these meditations, and almost upon the +last stroke I heard a sound that set my nerves tingling. I crouched in +the dark waiting. Some one was coming toward me, but from where? The +bottom of a well at midnight was not blacker than the fourth floor, but +the switch lay ready to my hand, and my pockets were stuffed with +matches of the sort that light anywhere. The stairways were all +carpeted, as I have said, and yet some one was ascending bare treads, +lightly, and with delays that suggested a furtive purpose. Meanwhile, +as a background for this unreality, murmurs of talk and occasional +laughter rose from the library. +</P> + +<P> +This concealed stairway, wherever it was, could not be of interminable +length, and I had counted, I think, fifteen steps of that strange +ascent when it ceased. I heard a fumbling as of some one seeking a +latch, and suddenly a light current of air swept by me, but its clean +fresh quality was not in itself disturbing. I stooped and struck a +match smartly on the carpet and at the same time clicked the switch. I +should say that not more than ten seconds passed from the moment the +soft rush of air had first advertised the opening of a passage near me +until the hall was flooded with the glow of the electric lamps +overhead. My match had also performed its office, but finding the +electric current behaving itself normally, I blew it out. What I saw +now interested me immensely. +</P> + +<P> +In the solid wall, near the stair, and almost directly opposite the +trunk-room, a narrow door had swung outward,—a neat contrivance, so +light in its construction that it still swayed on its concealed hinges +from the touch of the hand that had released it. How it had opened or +what had become of the prowler who had unlatched it remained to be +discovered. It seemed impossible that whoever or whatever had climbed +the hidden stairway had descended, nor had I been conscious of a +ghostly passing as on the previous night. I had only my senses to +apply to this problem, and their efficiency was minimized for a moment +by fear. +</P> + +<P> +The opening in the wall engaged my attention at once, and I was +steadied by the thought that here was a practical matter susceptible of +investigation. I stepped within the door and lighted a candle; and +just as the wick caught fire, click went a switch somewhere, and out +went the hall lamps. But having, so to speak, put my foot to the +mysterious stair I would not turn back, and I continued on down the +steps. +</P> + +<P> +Great was my astonishment to find that I had apparently stepped from a +new into an old house. The stair treads were worn by long use, the +plaster walls that inclosed them were battered and cracked, and I +seemed to have plunged from the glory of Hopefield into some dim lost +passage of a domicile of another era, that lay within or beneath the +walls of the Manor. As I slowly descended, holding high my candle, I +recalled, not without a qualm, the story of the British soldier whom +tradition or superstition linked to the site of Miss Hollister's +property. This stairway might certainly have been built in the early +days of the republic, and it refuted my disdain of the ghost-myth on +the theory that new houses are inhospitable to spirits. +</P> + +<P> +At the foot of the stair I found two rooms, one on either side of a +small hall, and these, also, were clearly part of an old house that +seemed to be somehow merged into the Hollister mansion. I remembered +now that the mansion stood wedged against a rough spur of rock, and +that the front and rear entrances were upon different levels, and it +was conceivable that the back part of the mansion might inclose these +rooms of an earlier house that had occupied the same site; why they +should have been retained was beyond me. +</P> + +<P> +Through the carefully-preserved windows, many-paned and quaint, of +these hidden rooms, the infolding walls of the new house were blank and +black. An odd thing indeed, that Pepperton should have lent himself to +the preservation of a commonplace and thoroughly uninteresting relic, +for beyond doubt he must have countenanced it; and Miss Hollister's +prompt removal of the plans from the architect's office became more +enigmatical than ever. +</P> + +<P> +One door only remained in this shell of the old house, and I hastened +to fling it open, still lighting my way with a candle. Before me lay +the coal cellar, at which I had merely glanced on the morning after my +installation at Hopefield. I now began to get my bearings. I +remembered two iron lids in the cemented surface of an area on the east +side of the house where fuel was deposited, and mounting a few steps +that were of recent construction, and had evidently been built to +afford communication between the remnant of the old house and the +subterranean portion of the new, I found to my relief and satisfaction +beneath one of these openings a short ladder, through which the court +might be reached. Here, then, the manner of ghostly ingress was +illustrated by perfectly plausible means. The lid of the coal-hole was +entirely withdrawn, and a bar of moonlight lay brightening upon a pile +of anthracite at the foot of the ladder. +</P> + +<P> +The ghost I believed to be still in the upper halls of the house, and +now that I was in a position to watch the ladder by which he had +entered I felt confident that I had cut off his retreat. I was +surveying the cellar, when I heard faint sounds in a new direction. +Far away under the house, and remote from the secret steps, some one +was moving toward me, and rapidly, too! The ghost that I believed to +have disappeared into the fourth-floor hall must then have changed the +line of his retreat and descended by one of the regular stairways. +</P> + +<P> +I blew out my candle and stood with my back to the wall of the long +corridor on which opened the various store-rooms, the heating plant, +laundry and other accessories of the modern house. My ghost was coming +in haste,—a haste that did not harmonize with the stately tread of the +spooks of popular superstition. A slower pace and I should doubtless +have fled before him; but quick light steps echoed in the dark +corridor, and I gathered courage from the thought that ghosts create +echoes no more than they cast shadows. +</P> + +<P> +As the steps drew nearer I prepared myself to spring upon him. I must +unconsciously have taken a step, for he paused suddenly, stood still +for a moment, then turned and scampered back the way he had come. +After him I went as fast as I could run. The cement-paved corridor was +four or five feet wide, and I plunged through the dark at my best +speed. At the end of the corridor I was pretty certain of my quarry, +and I made ready to grapple with him. Then as I plunged into the wall +my hands touched a man's face and for a moment clutched the collar of +his coat. He had been waiting for me to strike the wall, and as he +slipped out of my grasp he ran back toward the coal cellar. I had +struck the wall with a force that knocked the wind out of me, but I got +myself together with the loss of only an instant and renewed pursuit. +I had no fear but that, if he attempted to reach the open by means of +the coal-hole, I should catch him on the ladder, and I sprinted for all +I was worth to make sure of him. +</P> + +<P> +My fleeting grasp of the man's collar and the agility with which he had +slipped from my clasp had settled the ghost question, and I had now +resolved the intruder into a common thief. As we neared the coal +cellar I increased my pace, and felt myself gaining on him; though in +the dark I saw nothing until I glimpsed the faint light from the +coal-hole. +</P> + +<P> +It had evidently occurred to him by this time that if he tried to climb +the ladder I could easily pull him down by the legs; and when he +reached the cross hall, he turned quickly and dived through the opening +into the hidden chambers. I lost no time in following, but the fellow +put up a good race, and as I reached the old stairway he was mounting +it two steps at a time, as I judged from the sound. I had hoped to +catch and dispose of him without alarming the house, but it seemed +inevitable now that the chase would end in such fashion as to arouse +the company assembled in the library. +</P> + +<P> +I heard him stumble and fall headlong at the door above; then he shot +off into the still darkened hall, and when I had gained the top I lost +track of him for a moment. I paused and was about to strike a match, +when he resumed his flight, and I was forced to grapple with the fact +that some one else was pursuing him. I held my match unstruck upon +this new disclosure, and stepped back within the concealed door and +waited. Up and down the hall, two persons were running, and when they +reached the ends of the corridor I heard hands touch the wall and the +sound of dodging, and then almost instantly the two runners flashed by +me again. The hall was so dark that I saw nothing, but as the runners +passed the door I felt the rush of air caused by their flight. +</P> + +<P> +Three or four times this had happened, and then, still without having +made a light, I thrust out my foot at the next return of the unseen +runners. Some one tripped and fell headlong, and I promptly flung +myself upon him. +</P> + +<P> +My prisoner's resistance engaged my best attention a moment, but when I +had sat upon his legs and got hold of his struggling hands, some one +stole softly by me. My prisoner, too, heard and was attentive. Not +only did I experience the same sensation as on the previous night, of a +passing near by, but I was conscious of the same faint perfume, as of a +flower-scent half-caught in a garden at night, that had added to my +mystification before. Then without the slightest warning the lights +flashed on, and a door closed somewhere, but it was not the hidden one +leading down into the remnant of the old house, for my prisoner's head +and shoulders lay across its threshold. He sighed deeply, bringing my +dazed wits back to him, and I found myself gazing into the blinking +eyes of Lord Arrowood. +</P> + +<P> +"Bounders, I say, bounders!" he gasped. +</P> + +<P> +"In the circumstances, Lord Arrowood, I should not call names. Will +you tell me what you mean by running through this house in this +fashion? Stand up and give an account of yourself." +</P> + +<P> +I helped him to his feet and bent over the stair-rail leading down to +the third floor. Evidently our strange transactions beneath and above +had not disturbed the assembled suitors and their hostesses; but in +common decency Lord Arrowood must be disposed of promptly; there was no +doubt about that. +</P> + +<P> +"I was an ass to try it," muttered his lordship, pulling his tie into +shape. "And now I want to get out. I want to go away from here." +</P> + +<P> +He was tugging at the belt of his Norfolk coat, and something between +it and his waistcoat evidently gave him concern. It did not seem +possible that he was really a thief, with chattels concealed on his +person, but he continued to smooth his jacket anxiously, meanwhile +eyeing me apprehensively. He puffed hard from his recent game of +hide-and-seek, and his face was wet with perspiration. Our +conversation was carried on in half-whispers. He was so crestfallen +that if it had n't been for the necessity of maintaining silence I +should have laughed outright. +</P> + +<P> +"Out with it, my lord. What have you stuck in your coat?" +</P> + +<P> +"They're bounders, all the rest of 'em," he asserted doggedly, "but I +believe you to be a gentleman." +</P> + +<P> +"I thank you, Lord Arrowood, for this mark of confidence; but you have +led me a hot chase through this house, and it is clear that you have +something tucked under your coat that you have seized feloniously. +We're standing here in the light, and our voices may at any moment +attract Miss Hollister and the others in the library. Open your coat! +I declare that even if you have lifted a bit of the Hollister plate I +will let you go. My lord, if you please, stand and unfold yourself!" +</P> + +<P> +Reluctantly, shamefacedly, and still breathing hard from his late +exertions, Lord Arrowood of Arrowood, Hants, England, obeyed me. There +were five buttons to the close-fitting jacket, and the loosening of +every succeeding one seemed to give him pain. Then with his head +slightly lifted as though in disdain of me, he held out for my +observation a pie, in the pan in which it had been baked! The top +crust was browned to a nicety; its edges were crimped neatly; and in +spite of the fact that I had so lately dined sumptuously at Miss +Hollister's hospitable board, at sight of this alluring pastry I +experienced the sharp twinges of aroused appetite. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-244"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-244.jpg" ALT="He held out for my observation a pie." BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +He held out for my observation a pie. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"Now you have it, and I hope you are satisfied," said Lord Arrowood. +"Kindly allow me to retire by the way I came." +</P> + +<P> +"First," I replied, sobered by the gravity of his manner, "it would +interest me as a student of character to know just what species of pie +lured you to this burglarious deed." +</P> + +<P> +"I have reason to think," he answered, with tears in his eyes, "that it +is a gooseberry. I was damned hungry, if you must know the truth, and +having sampled the old lady's pies this morning, and had nothing to eat +since, I saw the coal-hole open and ladder beneath, and the rest of it +was easy. If you and the other chap had n't chased me all over the +estate, I 'd have been off with my pie and no harm done. The old lady +'s insane, you know, and has no manner of use for pies. The house is +haunted in the bargain. When you had about winded me down in the +cellar and cut me off from the ladder and chased me up here, the ghost +took a hand, and if you had n't tripped me and sat on me the spirits +would certainly have nailed me. O Lord, what a night!" +</P> + +<P> +"It's your impression then that when you got up here somebody else +broke into the game." +</P> + +<P> +"Quite that, only I should say some<I>thing</I>, not some<I>body</I>. It was a +lighter step than yours. It had its hand on me once; but I could n't +touch it. Damn me," he concluded hoarsely, "it was n't there to touch!" +</P> + +<P> +"You are sure you speak the truth when you say that the coal-hole was +open and that you found the ladder there when you came?" +</P> + +<P> +"No manner of doubt of it. As I have already said, I believe you to be +a gentleman, and between gentlemen certain confidences may pass that +would n't be possible between a gentleman and those <I>canaille</I> down +there." +</P> + +<P> +He jerked his head scornfully to indicate the suitors below. +</P> + +<P> +I bowed with such dignity as is possible in addressing a nobleman whom +you have just caught in the act of lifting a gooseberry-pie from a +lady's pantry,—a pie which you hold perforce in your hands. +</P> + +<P> +"The fact is that I was without the price of food; and to repeat, I was +beastly hungry." +</P> + +<P> +"Poverty and hunger, my lord, are pardonable sins. And I dare say that +Miss Hollister would be highly pleased to know that a gentleman of your +high position—she told me herself that you were descended from the +Jutish chiefs—had paid so high a compliment to the excellence of her +pastry. Your only error, as I view the matter, lies in the fact that +you have laid felonious hands upon a gooseberry-pie. All gooseberry +pastries are sacred to Hezekiah. My impressions of Hezekiah are the +pleasantest, and I cannot allow you to intervene between her and the +pie I hold in my hands. If you will accompany me below, I will +undertake to gain access to the pie vault, return this pie to its +proper place, and hand you, at the foot of the ladder, an apple-pie in +place of it. I dare say it never will be missed; but from what I know +of Hezekiah, any trifling with her appetite would be a crime indictable +at common law." +</P> + +<P> +His lordship seemed reassured, and we were about to descend by the +concealed stair when he arrested me. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Ames, you are a gentleman, and possess a generous heart. We +understand each other perfectly. And as I have every reason to believe +that my suit is hopeless, I ask the loan of five dollars until I can +confer with my friend the British consul at New York. I shall sail at +once for England." +</P> + +<P> +I was moved to pity by his humility. A man who, finding himself +reduced to larceny by hunger, and being unable to win the woman of his +choice, meekly yields to the inevitable, is not a fair mark for +contumely. He stepped down before me into the dark stairway, and I +closed the door after me and followed him. +</P> + +<P> +I found my way to the pie pantry without difficulty, returned the +gooseberry-pie to its proper shelf, chose an apple-pie and gave it, +with a five-dollar note, to Lord Arrowood. +</P> + +<P> +At the bottom of the ladder he pressed my hand feelingly, and expressed +his gratitude in terms that would have touched a harder heart than mine. +</P> + +<P> +Then having closed the coal-hole and hidden the ladder under a pile of +wood, I resumed my pursuit of the ghost. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap14"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XIV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +LADY'S SLIPPER +</H4> + +<P> +I lighted my way with a candle through the lost chambers of the old +house, up the hidden stairway, and out into the fourth-floor hall +again. The old stair, I found on closer observation, reached only from +the second to the fourth floor, and below this had been pieced with +lumber carefully preserved from the earlier house. There was nothing +so strange after all about the hidden stairway, though I was convinced +that this had been no idea of Pepperton's, but that he had merely +obeyed the orders of his eccentric client, the umbrella and +dyspepsia-cure millionaire. +</P> + +<P> +I had no sooner let myself through the secret door into the upper hall +than I was aware of a disturbance in the library below. I heard +exclamations from the men, and as I ran down toward the third floor +Miss Octavia's voice rose above the tumult. +</P> + +<P> +"We must have patience, gentlemen. Chimneys are subject to moods just +like human beings; and we are fortunate in having in the house a +gentleman who is an expert in such matters. I do not doubt that Mr. +Ames even now has his hand upon the chimney's pulse, and that he will +soon solve this perplexing problem." +</P> + +<P> +"If you wait for that man to mend your chimney you will wait until +doomsday." +</P> + +<P> +So spake John Stewart Dick, taking his vengeance of me with my client +and hostess. I might have forgiven him; but I could not forgive +Hartley Wiggins. +</P> + +<P> +"He does n't know any more about chimneys than the man in the moon," my +old friend was saying, between coughs. +</P> + +<P> +And then quite unmistakably I smelt smoke, and bending further over the +rail and peering down the stair-well I saw smoke pouring from the +library into the hall. It seemed to be in greater volume to-night than +at previous manifestations. A gray-blue cloud was filling the lower +hall and rising toward me. I ran quickly to the third floor, to the +chamber whose fireplace was served by the library chimney. The lights +in the third-floor hall winked out as I opened the door,—I heard a +step behind me somewhere; but I did not trouble about this. The switch +inside the unused guest-chamber responded readily to my touch, and on +kneeling by the hearth I found it cold, as I had expected. There was +absolutely no way of choking the library flue at this point, for, as I +had established earlier, all the fireplaces in this chimney had their +independent flues. Pepperton would never have built them otherwise, +and no one but a skilled mason could have tapped the library flue here +or higher up, and the work could not have been done without much noise +and labor. +</P> + +<P> +The hall outside was still dark, and I did not try the switch. The +pursuit was better carried on in darkness, and I had by this time +become accustomed to rapid locomotion through unlighted passages. I +leaned over the stair-well and heard exclamations of surprise at the +sudden cessation of the smoke, which had evidently abated as abruptly +as it had begun. The windows and doors had been opened, and the +company had returned to the library. +</P> + +<P> +"Quite extraordinary. Really quite remarkable!" they were saying +below. I heard Cecilia's light laughter as the odd ways of the chimney +were discussed. And as I stood thus peering down and listening, the +Swedish maid's blonde head appeared below me, bending over the +well-rail on the second floor. She too was taking note of affairs in +the library, and as I watched her she lifted her head and her eyes met +mine. Then, while we still stared at each other, the second-floor +lights went out with familiar abruptness, and as I craned my neck to +peer into the blackness above me I experienced once more that ghostly +passing as of some light, unearthly thing across my face. I reached +for it wildly with my hands, but it seemed to be caught away from me; +and then as I fought the air madly, it brushed my cheek again. I have +no words to describe the strange effect of that touch. I felt my scalp +creep and cold chills ran down my spine. It seemingly came from above, +and it was not like a hand, unless a hand of wonderful lightness! +Certainly no human arm could reach down the stair-well to where I +stood. And in that touch to-night there was something akin to a +gentle, lingering caress as it swept slowly across my face and eyes. +</P> + +<P> +I waited for its recurrence a moment, but it came no more. Then on a +sudden prompting I stole swiftly to the fourth floor, lighted my +candle, and gazed about. I thought it well to let the electric light +alone, for my ghost had once too often plunged me into darkness at +critical moments, and a candle in my hands was not subject to his +trickery. +</P> + +<P> +The hall was perfectly quiet. The door leading down the hidden stair +was invisible, and I had not yet learned how it might be opened from +the hall, though Mr. Bassford Hollister had undoubtedly left the house +by this means after my interview with him on the roof. And reminded of +the roof, I opened the trunk-room door and peered in. The candle-light +slowly crept into its dark corners, and looking up I marked the +presence of the trap-door secure in the opening. As I stood on the +threshold of the trunk-piled room, my hand on the knob and the candle +thrust well before me, I heard a slight furtive movement to my left and +behind the door. I was quite satisfied now that I was about to solve +some of the mysteries of the night, and to make sure I was +unobserved—for having gone so far alone I wanted no partners in my +investigations—I listened to the murmur of talk below for a moment, +then cautiously advanced my candle further into the room. I was not +yet so valiant, even after all my night-prowlings and explorations of +hidden chambers, but that I thrust the light in well ahead of me and +bent my wrist so that the candle's rays might dispel the last shadow +that lurked behind the door before I suffered my eyes to look upon the +goblin. I took one step and then cautiously another, until the whole +of the trunk-room was well within range of my vision. +</P> + +<P> +And there, seated on a prodigious trunk frescoed with labels of a dozen +foreign inns, I beheld Hezekiah! +</P> + +<A NAME="img-255"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-255.jpg" ALT="Seated on a prodigious trunk frescoed with labels of a dozen foreign inns, I beheld Hezekiah!" BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +Seated on a prodigious trunk frescoed with labels <BR> +of a dozen foreign inns, I beheld Hezekiah! +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +As I recall it she was very much at her ease. She sat on one foot and +the other beat the trunk lightly. She was bareheaded, and the +candle-light was making acquaintance with the gold in her hair. She +wore her white sweater, as on that day in the orchard; and with much +gravity, as our eyes met, she thrust a hand into its pocket and drew +out a cracker. I was not half so surprised at finding her there as I +was at her manner now that she was caught. She seemed neither +distressed, astonished nor afraid. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Miss Hezekiah," I said, "I half suspected you all along." +</P> + +<P> +"Wise Chimney-Man! You were a little slow about it though." +</P> + +<P> +"I was indeed. You gave me a run for my money." +</P> + +<P> +She finished her cracker at the third bite, slapped her hands together +to free them of possible crumbs, and was about to speak, when she +jumped lightly from the trunk, bent her head toward the door, and then +stepped back again and faced me imperturbably. +</P> + +<P> +"And now that you've found me, Mr. Chimney-Man, the joke's on you after +all." +</P> + +<P> +She laid her hand on the door and swung it nearly shut. I had heard +what she had heard: Miss Octavia was coming upstairs! She had +exchanged a few words with the Swedish maid on the second-floor +landing, and Hezekiah's quick ear had heard her. But Hezekiah's +equanimity was disconcerting: even with her aunt close at hand she +showed not the slightest alarm. She resumed her seat on the trunk, and +her heel thumped it tranquilly. +</P> + +<P> +"The joke's on you, Mr. Chimney-Man, because now that you 've caught me +playing tricks you've got to get me out of trouble." +</P> + +<P> +"What if I don't?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, nothing," she answered indifferently, looking me squarely in the +eye. +</P> + +<P> +"But your aunt would make no end of a row; and you would cause your +sister to lose out with Miss Octavia. As I understand it, you 're +pledged to keep off the reservation. It was part of the family +agreement." +</P> + +<P> +"But I'm here, Chimney-pot, so what are you going to do about it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Ames! If you are ghost-hunting in this part of the house"— +</P> + +<P> +It was Miss Octavia's voice. She was seeking me, and would no doubt +find me. The sequestration of Hezekiah became now an urgent and +delicate matter. +</P> + +<P> +"You caught me," said Hezekiah, calmly, "and now you've got to get me +out; and I wish you good luck! And besides, I lost one of my shoes +somewhere, and you've got to find that." +</P> + +<P> +In proof of her statement she submitted a shoeless, brown-stockinged +foot for my observation. +</P> + +<P> +"The one I lost was like this," and Hezekiah thrust forth a neat tan +pump, rather the worse for wear. "I was on the second floor a bit +ago," she began, "and lost my slipper." +</P> + +<P> +"In what mischief, pray?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Ames," called Miss Octavia, her voice close at hand. +</P> + +<P> +"I wanted to see something in Cecilia's room; so I opened her door and +walked in, that's all," Hezekiah replied. +</P> + +<P> +"Wicked Hezekiah! Coming into the house is bad enough in all the +circumstances. Entering your sister's room is a grievous sin." +</P> + +<P> +"If, Mr. Ames, you are still seeking an explanation of that chimney's +behavior"— +</P> + +<P> +It was Miss Octavia, now just outside the door. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't leave that trunk, Hezekiah," I whispered. "I'll do the best I +can." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Octavia met me smilingly as I faced her in the hall. She had +switched on the lights, and my candle burned yellowly in the white +electric glow. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Octavia held something in her hand. It required no second glance +to tell me that she had found Hezekiah's slipper. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Ames," she began, "as you have absented yourself from the library +all evening, I assume that you have been busy studying my chimneys and +seeking for the ghost of that British soldier who was so wantonly slain +upon the site of this house." +</P> + +<P> +"I am glad to say that not only is your surmise correct, Miss +Hollister, but that I have made great progress in both directions." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you mean to say that you have really found traces of the ghost?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not only that, Miss Hollister, but I have met the ghost face to +face,—even more, I have had speech with him!" +</P> + +<P> +Her face brightened, her eyes flashed. It was plain that she was +immensely pleased. +</P> + +<P> +"And are you able to say, from your encounter, that he is in fact a +British subject, uneasily haunting this house in America long after the +Declaration of Independence and Washington's Farewell Address have +passed into literature?" +</P> + +<P> +"You have never spoken a truer word, Miss Hollister. The ghost with +whom or which I have had speech is still a loyal subject of the King of +England. But by means which I am not at liberty to disclose, I have +persuaded him not to visit this house again." +</P> + +<P> +"Then," said Miss Hollister, "I cannot do less than express my +gratitude; though I regret that you did not first allow me to meet him. +Still, I dare say that we shall find his bones buried somewhere beneath +my foundations. Please assure me that such is your expectation." +</P> + +<P> +She was leading me into deep water, but I had skirted the coasts of +truth so far; and with Hezekiah on my hands I felt that it was +necessary to satisfy Miss Hollister in every particular. +</P> + +<P> +"To-morrow, Miss Hollister, I shall take pleasure in showing you +certain hidden chambers in this house which I venture to say will +afford you great pleasure. I have to-night discovered a link between +the mansion as you know it and an earlier house whose timbers may +indeed hide the bones of that British soldier." +</P> + +<P> +"And as for the chimney?" +</P> + +<P> +"And as for the chimney, I give you my word as a professional man that +it will never annoy you again, and I therefore beg that you dismiss the +subject from your mind." +</P> + +<P> +I saw that she was about to recur to the shoe she held in her hand and +at which she glanced frequently with a quizzical expression. This, +clearly, was an issue that must be met promptly, and I knew of no +better way than by lying. Hezekiah herself had plainly stated, on the +morning of that long, eventful day, when she walked into the +breakfast-room in her aunt's absence and explained Cecilia's trip to +town, that it was perfectly fair to dissimulate in making explanations +to Miss Hollister; that, in fact, Miss Octavia enjoyed nothing better +than the injection of fiction into the affairs of the matter-of-fact +day. Here, then, was my opportunity. Hezekiah had thrown the +responsibility of contriving her safe exit upon my hands. No doubt, +while I held the door against her aunt, that remarkable young woman was +coolly sitting on the trunk within, eating another cracker and awaiting +my experiments in the gentle art of lying. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Hollister," I began boldly, "the slipper you hold in your hand +belongs to me, and if you have no immediate use for it I beg that you +allow me to relieve you of it." +</P> + +<P> +"It is yours, Mr. Ames?" +</P> + +<P> +A lifting of the brows, a widening of the eyes, denoted Miss Octavia's +polite surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"Beyond any question it is my property," I asserted. +</P> + +<P> +"Your words interest me greatly, Mr. Ames. As you know, the grim hard +life of the twentieth century palls upon me, and I am deeply interested +in everything that pertains to adventure and romance. Tell me more, if +you are free to do so, of this slipper which I now return to you." +</P> + +<P> +I received Hezekiah's worn little pump into my hands as though it were +an object of high consecration, and with a gravity which I hope matched +Miss Octavia's own. I was, I think, by this time completely +hollisterized, if I may coin the word. +</P> + +<P> +"As I am nothing if not frank, Miss Hollister, I will confess to you +that this shoe came into my possession in a very curious way. One day +last spring I was in Boston, having been called there on professional +business. In the evening, I left my hotel for a walk, crossed the +Common, took a turn through the Public Garden, where many devoted +lovers adorned the benches, and then strolled aimlessly along Beacon +Street." +</P> + +<P> +"I know that historic thoroughfare well," interrupted Miss Hollister, +"as my friend Miss Prudence Biddeford has lived there for half a +century, and once, while I was staying in her house, she gave me her +recipe for Boston brown bread, thereby placing me greatly in her debt." +</P> + +<P> +"Then, being acquainted with the neighborhood and its sublimated social +atmosphere, you will be interested in the experience I am about to +describe," I continued, reassured by Miss Octavia's sympathetic +attention to my recital. "I was passing a house which I have not since +been able to identify exactly, though I have several times revisited +Boston in the hope of doing so, when suddenly and without any warning +whatever this slipper dropped at my feet. All the houses in the +neighborhood seemed deserted, with windows and doors tightly boarded, +and my closest scrutiny failed to discover any opening from which that +slipper might have been flung. The region is so decorous, and acts of +violence are so foreign to its dignity and repose, that I could scarce +believe that I held that bit of tan leather in my hand. Nor did its +unaccountable precipitation into the street seem the act of a +housemaid, nor could I believe that a nursery governess had thus sought +diversion from the roof above. I hesitated for a moment not knowing +how to meet this emergency; then I boldly attacked the bell of the +house from which I believed the slipper to have proceeded. I rang +until a policeman, whose speech was fragrant of the Irish coasts, bade +me desist, informing me that the family had only the previous day left +for the shore. The house he assured me was utterly vacant. That, Miss +Hollister, is all there is of the story. But ever since I have carried +that slipper with me. It was in my pocket to-night as I traversed the +upper halls of your house, seeking the ghost of that British soldier, +and I had just discovered my loss when I heard you calling. In +returning it you have conferred upon me the greatest imaginable favor. +I have faith that sometime, somewhere, I shall find the owner of that +slipper. Would you not infer, from its diminutive size, and the fine, +suggestive delicacy of its outlines that the owner is a person of +aristocratic lineage and of breeding? I will confess that nothing is +nearer my heart than the hope that one day I shall meet the young +lady—I am sure she must be young—who wore that slipper and dropped it +as it seemed from the clouds, at my feet there in sedate Beacon Street, +that most solemn of residential sanctuaries." +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Ames," began Miss Hollister instantly, with an assumed severity +that her smile belied, "I cannot recall that my niece Hezekiah ever +visited in Beacon Street; yet I dare say that if she had done so and a +young man of your pleasing appearance had passed beneath her window, +one of her slippers might very easily have become detached from +Hezekiah's foot and fallen with a nice calculation directly in front of +you. But now, Mr. Ames, will you kindly carry your candle into that +trunk-room?" +</P> + +<P> +And I had been pluming myself upon the completeness of my +hollisterization! There was nothing for me but to obey, and my heart +sank as my imagination pictured Hezekiah's discomfiture when we should +find her seated on the huge trunk behind the door. And that stockinged +foot already called in appealing accents to the shoe I held in my hand! +The foundations of the world shook as I remembered the compact by which +Hezekiah was excluded from the house, and realized what the impending +discovery would mean to Cecilia, her father, and the wayward Hezekiah, +too! But I was in for it. Miss Octavia indicated by an imperious nod +that I was to precede her into the trunk-room, and I strode before her +with my candle held high. +</P> + +<P> +But the sprites of mystery were still abroad at Hopefield. The room +was unoccupied save for the trunks. Hezekiah had vanished. Instead of +sitting there to await the coming of her aunt, she had silently +departed, without leaving a trace. Miss Hollister glanced up at the +trap-door in the ceiling, and so did I. It was closed, but I did not +doubt that Hezekiah had crawled through it and taken herself to the +roof. Miss Octavia would probably order me at once to the battlements; +but worse was to come. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Ames," she said, "will you kindly lift the lid of that largest +trunk." +</P> + +<P> +I had not thought of this, and I shuddered at the possibilities. +</P> + +<P> +She indicated the trunk upon which Hezekiah had sat and nibbled her +cracker not more than ten minutes before. Could it be possible that +when I lifted the cover that golden head would be found beneath? My +life has known no blacker moment than that in which I flung back the +lid of that trunk. I averted my eyes in dread of the impending +disclosure and held the candle close. +</P> + +<P> +But the trunk was empty, incredibly empty! My courage rose again, and +I glanced at Miss Octavia triumphantly. I even jerked out the trays to +allay any lingering suspicion. Why had I ever doubted Hezekiah? Who +was she, the golden-haired daughter of kings, to be caught in a trunk? +She had slipped up the ladder while I talked to her aunt and was even +now hiding on the roof; but it was not for me to make so treasonable a +suggestion. Miss Octavia might press the matter further if she liked, +but I would not help her to trap Hezekiah. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Hollister did not, to my surprise and relief, suggest an +inspection of the roof. She nodded her head gravely and passed out +into the hall. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Ames, if I implied a moment ago that I doubted your story of the +dropping of that tan pump from a Beacon Street roof or window, I now +tender you my sincerest apologies." +</P> + +<P> +She put out her hand, smiling charmingly. +</P> + +<P> +"Pray return to the occupations which were engaging you when I +interrupted you. You have never stood higher in my regard than at this +moment. To-morrow you may tell me all you please of the ghost and the +mysteries of this house, and I dare say we shall find the bones of that +British soldier somewhere beneath the foundations. As for that +trifling bit of leather you hold in your hand, it's rather passé for +Beacon Street. The next time you tell that story I suggest that you +play your game of drop the slipper from a window in Rittenhouse Square, +Philadelphia. Still, as I always keep an umbrella in the check-room of +the Parker House, I would not have you imagine that I look upon Boston +as an unlikely scene for romance. The last time I was there a Mormon +missionary pressed a tract upon me in the subway, and I can't deny that +I found it immensely interesting." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap15"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +LOSS OF THE SILVER NOTE-BOOK +</H4> + +<P> +Hezekiah on the roof was safe for a time. Miss Octavia's gentle +rejection of my Beacon Street anecdote and her intimation that Hezekiah +had been an unbilled participant in the comedy of the ghost had been +disquieting, and in my relief at her abandonment of the search I +loitered on downstairs with my hostess. I wished to impress her with +the idea that I was without urgent business. Hezekiah would, beyond +doubt, amuse herself after her own fashion on the roof until I was +ready to release her. As I had quietly locked the trunk-room door and +carried the key in my pocket I was reasonably sure of this. Humility +is best acquired through tribulation, and as Hezekiah sat among the +chimney-crocks nursing one stockinged foot and waiting for me to turn +up with her lost slipper, it would do her no harm to nibble the bitter +fruit of repentance with another biscuit. I should find her much less +sure of herself when I saw fit to seek her on the roof. It was a +pretty comedy we were playing, but it was best that she should not too +complacently take all the curtains. Hezekiah's naughtiness had been +diverting up to a point now reached and passed, but the time had +arrived for remonstrance, admonition, discipline. And it should be my +grateful task to point out the error of her ways and urge her into +safer avenues of conduct. Such were my reflections as I attended Miss +Octavia in her descent. +</P> + +<P> +The memoranda of my adventures at Hopefield Manor fall under two +general headings. On the one hand was the ghost and the library +chimney; on the other the extraordinary gathering of Cecilia's suitors. +As I followed at Miss Octavia's side, she seemed to have dismissed the +ghost and the fractious chimney from her mind; her humor changed +completely. As in the morning when, unaccountably abandoning her +habitual high-flown speech, she had asked me about Cecilia's silver +note-book, she seemed troubled; and when we had reached the second +floor she paused and lost herself in unwonted preoccupation. +</P> + +<P> +"Let us sit here a moment," she said, indicating a long davenport in +the broad hall. For the first time her manner betrayed weariness. She +laid her hand quietly on my arm and looked at me fixedly. "Arnold," +she said,—"you will let me call you Arnold, won't you?" she added +plaintively, and never in my life had I been so touched by anything so +sweet and gentle and kind,—"Arnold, if an old woman like me should do +a very foolish thing in following her own whims and then find that she +had probably committed herself to a course likely to cause unhappiness, +what would you advise her to do about it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Hollister," I answered, "if you trusted Providence this morning +to send you a corps of servants when yours had been most unfortunately +scattered by ghosts or rumors of ghosts, why will you not continue to +have confidence that your affairs will always be directed by agencies +equally alert and beneficent?" +</P> + +<P> +She flashed upon me that rare wonderful smile of hers; she looked me in +the eyes quizzically with her head bent slightly to one side; but for +once her usual readiness seemed to have forsaken her. Could it be +possible that she was losing faith in her own play-world, and that the +tuneful trumpets of adventure and romance which she had set vibrating +on her own key jarred dully in her ears? It passed swiftly through my +mind that it was incumbent on me to win her back to complete belief in +the potency of the oracles that had called to her old age. She had +dipped her paddle into bright waters and had splashed up all manner of +gay imaginings, and what disasters awaited her now if she beached her +argosy and found no gold at the end of the rainbow! It occurred to me, +prosaic man and chimney-doctor that I was, that no one should be +disappointed who has heard the dream-gods calling at twilight, or +wakened to the chanting of the capstan-song, or heard the timbers +creaking in the stout old caravel of romance as it wallows in the seas +that wash the happy isles. I had not crawled through so many chimneys +but that I still believed that dreams come true, not because they will +but because they must! And in the case of Miss Octavia Hollister I +felt a great responsibility; for what irremediable loss might not +result to a world too little given these days to dreaming, if she, who +at sixty had turned her heart trustfully to adventure, should find only +sorrow and disappointment? The thing must not be! I was feeling the +least bit elated over my success in solving the riddle of the ghost, +and I knew that the hidden chambers and stair would delight her when I +revealed them on the morrow; so I quite honestly sought to restore her +to the joy of life. I felt that she was waiting for me to speak +further, and I plunged ahead. +</P> + +<P> +"Our meeting in the Asolando was the most interesting thing that ever +happened to me, Miss Hollister. I was rapidly becoming hopelessly +cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in to saucy doubts and fears as to +the promise of life held out to us in the nursery, where, indeed, all +education should begin and end. Your appearance at the Asolando that +afternoon was well-timed to save me from death in a world that was +rapidly losing for me all its illusion and witchery. But now that you +have so readily won me back to the true faith, I beg of you do not +yourself revert to the dreary workaday world from which you rescued me." +</P> + +<P> +I had never in my life spoken more sincerely. I had never been so +happy as since I knew her, and I was pleading for myself as well as for +her—there where, from her own doorstep and in her own garden, one who +listened attentively might hear the faint roar of trains bound toward +the teeming city along iron highways. It was with relief that I saw my +words had struck home. She touched my hand lightly; then she took it +in both her own. +</P> + +<P> +"You really believe that; you are not merely trying to please me?" +</P> + +<P> +"I was never half so much in earnest! Please go on in the way you have +begun. And have no fear that the charts will mislead you, or that the +seas will grind your bark on hidden shoals. Shipwreck, you know, is +one of the greatest joys of our adventures,—we have to be wrecked +first before we find the island of the treasure-chests." +</P> + +<P> +She sighed softly, but I felt that her spirits were rising. +</P> + +<P> +"But those men down there? How shall I manage that?" she asked eagerly. +</P> + +<P> +I snapped my fingers. We must get back into the air again. And it was +remarkable how readily my long-untried wings bore me upward. The +earth, after all, does not bind us so fast! +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know the game; but I have found out a lot of things without +being told, so tell me nothing! Remember that I have something quite +remarkable, startling even, to show you to-morrow. I have even +overcome, you know, the obstacle you placed in the way of my +discoveries by sending in ahead of me this morning for the plans of the +house." +</P> + +<P> +I watched her narrowly, but she was in no wise discomfited. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I burned them the moment Hilda brought them back," she laughed. +"I had faith in you, and I wanted you to manage it all for yourself. I +rather guessed that you would go to Pepperton. That was when I still +believed." +</P> + +<P> +"But you must go on believing. Make-believing is the main cornerstone +and the keystone of the arch of the happy life." +</P> + +<P> +"You are sure you are not mocking a foolish old woman?" +</P> + +<P> +"You are the wisest woman I ever knew!" I asserted, and my heart was in +the words. +</P> + +<P> +"I believe you have persuaded me; but Cecilia"— +</P> + +<P> +She was again at the point of loosening her hold upon the cord that +linked her shallop to Ariel's isle, but my own youth was resurgent in +me. +</P> + +<P> +I rose hastily, the better to break the current of her thought. +</P> + +<P> +"Those men down there! They are in the hands of a higher fate than we +control. I don't know the game"— +</P> + +<P> +"But if"—she broke in. +</P> + +<P> +"But if you gave away the secret, explained it to me, you would throw +me back into my darkest chimney to hope no more. Leave it to me; trust +me; lean upon me! I assure you that all will be well." +</P> + +<P> +She bent her head and yielded herself to reverie for a moment. Then +she sprang to her feet in that indescribably light, graceful way that +erased at least fifty of her years from the reckoning, and was herself +again. +</P> + +<P> +"Arnold Ames," she said, laughing a little but gazing up at me with +unmistakable confidence and liking in her eyes, "we will go through +with this to the end. And whether that slipper really fell at your +feet in Beacon Street or in the even less likely precincts of +Rittenhouse Square, or under the windows of the Spanish Embassy in +Washington, I believe that you are my good knight, and that you will +see me safely through this singular adventure." +</P> + +<P> +And I, Arnold Ames, but lately a student of chimneys, bent and kissed +Miss Octavia's hand. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-274"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-274.jpg" ALT="And I bent and kissed Miss Octavia's hand." BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +And I bent and kissed Miss Octavia's hand. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +She led the way to the library, where I thought it well to appear for a +moment, and I was heartily glad that I did so. It was joy enough for +any man that he should have earned such glances of hatred and suspicion +as the suitors bent upon me. There they were, some standing, some +seated, about Cecilia. I bowed low from the door, feeling that to +offer my hand to these gentlemen in their present temper would be too +severe a strain upon their manners. As Miss Octavia appeared, several +of them advanced courteously and engaged her in conversation. She +found a seat and called the others to her, on the plea that she wished +to ask them their opinion touching some matter,—I believe it was a +late rumor that Andree, who had gone ballooning to discover the +Hyperboreans, had been heard of somewhere. +</P> + +<P> +Cecilia appeared distrait, and I wondered what new turn her affairs had +taken. She rose as I crossed the room, and from her manner I judged +that she welcomed this chance of addressing me. +</P> + +<P> +"You have scorned the library to-night. Has there been trouble? Is +Aunt Octavia alarmed about anything?" +</P> + +<P> +I was sure that this inquiry covered some ulterior question. Hartley +Wiggins, listening with a bored air to Miss Octavia's discussion of +Andree's fate, glanced in our direction with manifest displeasure in +our propinquity. Cecilia Hollister was a beautiful, charming woman of +the world, but I felt her spell less to-night. It may be that the +presence of Hezekiah's slipper in my inside coat-pocket, pressing +rather insistently against my ribs, acted as a counter-irritant. I +certainly could not imagine myself possessed of one of Cecilia's +slippers! If I had tried my fictitious Beacon Street episode on +Cecilia, she would undoubtedly have expressed her scorn of me. The +hollisteritis germ, that had heretofore infected me only +intermittently, was now exerting its full tonic power. In trying to +hold Miss Octavia to her covenants with the lords of romance, I had +strengthened my own confidence in their bold emprise. The gravity with +which the suitors gave heed to Miss Octavia's ideas on arctic +ballooning touched my humor. Cecilia had but to state her perplexity +and I would interest myself promptly in her business. If I had been +asked that night to enlist in the most hopeless causes I should have +done so without a quibble, and died cheerfully under any barricade. +</P> + +<P> +Our time was short; at any moment the suitors might cease covertly +glaring at me, drift away from Miss Octavia, and interpose themselves +between me and the girl on whom they had set their collective hearts. +</P> + +<P> +"You are in difficulty, Miss Cecilia," I said; "please tell me in what +way I may serve you." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know why I should appeal to you"— +</P> + +<P> +"No reason is necessary. I have told you before that you need only to +command me. We may be interrupted at any moment. Pray go on." +</P> + +<P> +"I have lost an article of the greatest value to me. It has been taken +from my room." +</P> + +<P> +For a moment only I read distrust and suspicion in her eyes as it +occurred to her that I had access to every part of the house; but my +manner seemed to restore her confidence. And she could not have +forgotten that her own father had met her secretly on the roof of a +house that was denied him, and that I was perfectly cognizant of the +fact. +</P> + +<P> +"I am sure you can be of assistance," she said. "There's something +behind this ghost-story; some one has been in and about the house; you +believe that?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. There has really been a sort of ghost, you know." +</P> + +<P> +She shrugged her shoulders. Cecilia had no patience with ghosts, and +we were losing time. My conversation with Cecilia was annoying +Wiggins, as was plain from his nervousness. Wiggins's courtesy was +unfailing, but there are points at which the restraints of civilization +snap. Cecilia realized that time passed and that she had not stated +her difficulty. She now lowered her voice and spoke with great +earnestness. +</P> + +<P> +"I went to my room for a moment, while Aunt Octavia was above, with you +I suppose, just after the chimney gave another of its strange +demonstrations. I remembered that I had left my little silver-bound +book, that I usually carry with me, on my dressing-room table. It +contains a memorandum of great importance to me. It positively cannot +be duplicated. I am sure it was there when I came down to dinner. But +it was not on my dressing-table or anywhere to be found." +</P> + +<P> +"You may be mistaken as to where you left it. You would not be +absolutely positive that you left it on the dressing-table?" +</P> + +<P> +"There is not the slightest question about it. I had been looking at +it just before dinner. I had sent you a note, you know, immediately +after you came back, and hurried down to see you." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. I recall that. You were in the library when I came down. And I +think I remember having seen the little trinket,—slightly smaller than +a card-case, silver-backed and only a few leaves. You had it in your +hand the other night when I came in after Mr. Hume had left." +</P> + +<P> +She flushed slightly at this, but readily acquiesced in my description. +Miss Octavia's inquiry as to whether I had seen the book came back to +me; and no less clearly her withdrawal of her question almost the +moment she had spoken it. +</P> + +<P> +I felt the sudden impingement of Hezekiah's slipper upon my own +conscience, if I may so state the matter. Hezekiah, playing ghost, had +confessed to me that she had visited Cecilia's room. Hezekiah, amusing +herself with the library chimney and frightening the servants by +stealing into the forbidden house through the coal-hole, was a culprit +to be scolded and forgiven; but what of Hezekiah mischievously filching +an article of real value to her sister! I did not like this turn of +affairs. I must get back to the roof, find Hezekiah, and compel her to +return the silver book. Only by tactfully managing this could I serve +well all the members of the house of Hollister. But first I must leave +Cecilia with a tranquil mind. +</P> + +<P> +"I thank you for confiding this matter to me, Miss Hollister. Please +do not attach suspicion to any one until I have seen you again." +</P> + +<P> +"But if you should be unable to restore"— +</P> + +<P> +"I assure you that the book is not lost. It has been mislaid, that's +all. I shall return it to you at breakfast. I give you my word." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you really mean it?" she faltered. "Please keep this from Aunt +Octavia! I can't tell you how important it is that she be kept in +ignorance of my loss. The consequences, if she knew, might be very +distressing." +</P> + +<P> +I could not for the life of me see what great importance could attach +to those few leaves of paper in their silver case, but if Miss Octavia +and Hezekiah were interested in it as well as Cecilia, it must have a +significance wholly unrelated to its intrinsic value. It is the way of +professional detectives to suggest impossible theories merely to +conceal their own plans and intentions, and as I had reached a point +where my tongue was astonishingly glib in subterfuge and evasion, I +suggested that it might perhaps have been one of the new servants, or +indeed the Swedish maid. +</P> + +<P> +"We will look into the matter, Miss Hollister. At breakfast I shall +have something to report. Meanwhile silence is the word!" +</P> + +<P> +Miss Octavia was carrying the invincible John Stewart Dick away to the +billiard-room. He glared at me murderously as he trailed glumly after +the lady of the manor. The others were crowding about Cecilia again, +and I yielded to them willingly. As I sauntered toward the door Ormsby +detained me a moment. His manner was arrogant and he hissed rather +than spoke. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm directed to command your presence at the Prescott Arms to-morrow +at twelve o'clock. The business is important." +</P> + +<P> +"I regret, my dear brother, that I shall be unable to sit with you at +that hour in committee of the whole, and for two reasons. The first is +that I am paired with Lord Arrowood. You refused to take him into your +base compact, and allowed him to be thrown out of the inn for not +paying his bill. The act was deficient in generosity and gallantry." +</P> + +<P> +"Then I suppose you would think it a fine thing for such a pauper to +marry a woman like that,—like that, I say?" and he jerked his head +toward Cecilia. +</P> + +<P> +"I consider a lord of Arrowood as good as the proprietor of a +knitting-mill any day, if you press me for an opinion," I replied +amiably. +</P> + +<P> +"And this from a chimney-sweep?" he sneered. +</P> + +<P> +"You flatter me, my dear sir. I've renounced soot and become a +gentleman adventurer merely to prevent a type that long illumined +popular fiction from becoming extinct. I advise you to fill the void +existing in the heavy-villain class; believe me, your talents would +carry you far. Study Dumas and forget the wool-market, and you will +lead a happier life. My second reason for declining to meet you at the +Arms at twelve to-morrow is merely that the hour is inconvenient. I +assume that you mean to urge luncheon upon me, and I never eat before +one. My doctor has warned me to avoid early luncheons if I would +preserve my figure, of which you may well believe me justly proud." +</P> + +<P> +"You're a coward, that's all there is to that. I dare you to come!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, as I think of it I 'd rather be dared than invited. If I find +it quite convenient I shall drop in. But you need n't keep the waffles +hot for me. Good evening." +</P> + +<P> +It did not seem possible that I, the timid, uncombative and unathletic, +had thus cavalierly addressed a dignified gentleman in a white +waistcoat who was perfectly capable of knocking me down with a slap in +the face. Valor, I aver, is only another of the offsprings of +necessity. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap16"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XVI +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +JACK O' LANTERN +</H4> + +<P> +I hurried back to the trunk-room and had soon gained the roof. The +moon was harassed by flying clouds that obscured it fitfully, and a +keen wind swept the hills. I crept over the several levels of roof +thinking that any moment I should come upon Hezekiah; I searched a +second time, peering behind chimney-pots, and into dark angles; but to +my disappointment and chagrin my young lady of the single slipper was +nowhere in sight. I found, however, lying near the library chimney, a +trunk-tray that required no explanation. With this Hezekiah had +blocked the flue, and I smiled as I pictured her tip-toeing to reach +the chimney-crock, and dropping the tray across the top. How gleefully +she must have chuckled as she waited for the flue to fill and send the +smoke ebbing back into the library, to the discomfiture of her aunt and +sister and the suitors gathered about the hearth! The spirit of +mischief never whispered into a prettier ear a trick better calculated +to cause confusion. +</P> + +<P> +I had thought Hezekiah secure when I locked the trunk-room door, but I +had not counted upon the versatility and resourcefulness of that young +person. I dropped to the second roof-level and inspected the +down-spouts, but it was incredible that she had sought the earth by +this means. I swung myself to a third level, and after much groping +for my bearings, decided that an athletic girl of Hezekiah's +venturesome disposition might, if she set no great store by her neck, +clamber off the kitchen-roof by means of a tall maple whose branches +now raspingly called attention to their slight contact with the house. +It was here that the walls of Hopefield thrust themselves into the +shoulder of a rough rocky knoll, and it was perfectly clear now that +the chambers of the earlier house around which the mansion had been +built were neatly enfolded by the walls on the east side. +</P> + +<P> +As the moon cruised into a patch of clear sky something white fluttered +from a maple limb, and I bent and pulled it free. I took counsel of a +match behind the kitchen chimney, and found that it was a handkerchief +that had been knotted to the tip of the bough. No one but Hezekiah +would have thought of marking her trail in this fashion. I held it to +my face, and that faint perfume that had been a mystifying +accompaniment of the passing of the mansion ghost became nothing more +unreal than the orris in Hezekiah's handkerchief-case. The wind +whipped the bit of linen spitefully in my hands. I reasoned that if +Hezekiah the inexplicable had not meant for me to know the manner of +her exit she need not have left this plain hint behind; but the swaying +maple bough did not tempt me. I hurried back across the roof to secure +the trunk-tray, resolved to dispose of it, seek the open, and find the +errant Hezekiah if she still lingered in the neighborhood. +</P> + +<P> +I looked off across the windy landscape before descending, and as my +eyes ranged the dark I caught the glimmer of a light, as of a lantern +borne in the hand, in the meadow beyond the garden. It paused, and was +swung back and forth by its unseen bearer. It shed a curious yellow +light and not the white flame of the common lantern; and now it rose a +trifle higher and slowly resolved itself into a weird fantastic face. +</P> + +<P> +Three minutes later I was out of the house, using the backstairs to +avoid the company in the library, and had crossed the garden and +crawled through the hedge. As I rose to my feet a voice greeted me +cheerfully,— +</P> + +<P> +"Well done, Chimney-Man! You were a little slow hitting the trail, but +you do pretty well, considering. How did you manage with Aunt Octavia +about that slipper? I had a narrow escape in the second-floor hall, +when I came out of Cecilia's room. I must have lowered a record +getting upstairs. And one shoe is n't a bit comfortable. Allow me to +relieve you!" +</P> + +<P> +"Here's your slipper. You ought to be ashamed of yourself." +</P> + +<P> +"For losing my slipper? I thought Cinderella had made that +respectable." +</P> + +<P> +She placed her hand on my shoulder, lifted her foot, and drew the pump +on with a single tug. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, what did Aunt Octavia say?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, she had thoughts too dark to express. You probably heard what we +said. It was she who found the slipper!" +</P> + +<P> +Hezekiah laughed. The wind caught up that laugh and whisked it away +jealously. +</P> + +<P> +"She found it and carried it to you, Chimney-Man, and I skipped just as +you began that beautiful story about finding it in Beacon Street. +Hurry and tell me how you got me out of it." +</P> + +<P> +"How did you know I would try to explain it? You did a perfectly +foolhardy thing in roaming the house that way, scaring Lord Arrowood +nearly to death, to say nothing of me. Why should I help you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, you're a man and I was just a little girl who had lost her +slipper," she replied. "I was sure you would fix it up." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I like your nerve, Hezekiah! I had to lie horribly to explain +the slipper, and Miss Octavia did n't swallow more than half my yarn." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, well, if it was a good story, Aunt Octavia would n't mind. She'd +have minded, though, if you had n't tried to get me out of it. That's +the way with Aunt Octavia. I hope you made a romantic tale of it." +</P> + +<P> +"I can't say that it would place me among the great masters of fiction, +Hezekiah, but as lies go I think it had merit. And I 'll improve if I +stay here much longer." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, you'll stay all right. Aunt Octavia has no intention of letting +you go. When she left the Asolando that afternoon she met you, she had +her plans all made for kidnapping you." +</P> + +<P> +"She did n't tell you so, did she?" +</P> + +<P> +"No; because I have n't seen her and I'm not supposed to see her, you +know, until Cecilia is all fixed." +</P> + +<P> +"Married?" +</P> + +<P> +"Um," replied Hezekiah. +</P> + +<P> +She drew from behind a boulder by which we stood a pumpkin of portable +size, which I surmised had been carved into the most hideous of jack o' +lanterns by the shrewd hand of Hezekiah. I took it from her with the +excuse of relieving her, but really to turn the light of the fearsome +thing more directly upon her. The wind blew her hair about her face; +hers was an elfish face to-night. With a pleasant tingling I met her +eyes. The light of a jack o' lantern is not of the earth earthy. Even +when you know perfectly well that it's only a candle stuck in a +pumpkin, you are not fully satisfied of its mundane character. In its +glow one becomes a conspirator, ready for treason, stratagems and +spoils. More concretely, in these moments a small archipelago of +freckles revealed itself about Hezekiah's nose and caused my heart to +palpitate strangely. Her sun-browned cheek was perilously near. I +hoped that she would bend forever over the lantern, so that I might not +lose the tiny shadows of her lashes, or, again, the laughter of her +brown eyes as she glanced up to ask my judgment as to the security of +the candle. She viewed her handiwork with feigned solicitude, the tip +of her tongue showing between her lips. Then the mirth in her bubbled +out, and she drew away and clapped her hands together like a child. +</P> + +<P> +"Come!" she cried. "If you are good and won't begin preaching about my +sins, I'll show you the funniest thing you ever saw in your life." +</P> + +<P> +In my joy of seeing her I was neglecting Cecilia's commission. Very +likely Hezekiah had forgotten all about her theft; hers, I reasoned, +was a nature that delighted in the nearest pleasure. I would follow +her jack o' lantern round the world for the chance of seeing the fun +brighten in her brown eyes, but I had made a promise to Cecilia and I +meant to fulfill it. +</P> + +<P> +She led me now across the meadow, over a stone wall, up a steep slope, +and by devious ways through a strip of woodland. I bore the jack o' +lantern,—she had bidden me do it, with some notion, I did not +question, of making me <I>particeps criminis</I> in whatever mischief was +afoot. Dignified conduct in a man of twenty-eight, in his best evening +clothes, carrying a jack o' lantern over stone walls, under clumps of +briar, and through woods whose boughs clawed the night wildly! The +moon lost and found under the flying scud was in keeping with the +general irresponsibility of a world ruled by Hezekiah. +</P> + +<P> +She swung along ahead of me with the greatest ease and certainty. +Occasionally she flung some word back at me or whistled a few bars of a +tune, and when I slipped and nearly fell on a smooth slope she laughed +mockingly and bade me not lose the pumpkin. Once, when a boy, I stole +a watermelon and bore it a mile to the rendezvous of my pirate band +camped at a riverside; but carrying a pumpkin, even a hollow one, is +attended with manifold discomforts. It would help, I reflected, to +know just what I was lugging it for, but Hezekiah vouchsafed nothing. +When I threatened to drop the grinning gargoyle she laughed and told me +to trot along and not be silly; and a moment later she stopped and +demanded that I repeat fully the story I had told her aunt of the +finding of the slipper. +</P> + +<P> +"You are better than I thought you were, Chimney-Man!" she declared, +when I had concluded and added her aunt's comment. "You may be sure +that tickled Aunt Octavia. You can lie almost as well as an architect. +Aunt Octavia says architects are better liars than dress-makers." +</P> + +<P> +"It was my weakness for the truth that caused me to abandon +architecture. For heaven's sake, what are you up to?" +</P> + +<P> +I had kept little account of the direction of our flight, and I was +surprised that we had now reached the stile over which I had watched +the passing of the suitors on the afternoon of my meeting with Hezekiah +in the orchard. +</P> + +<P> +"This is the appointed place," she remarked, taking the pumpkin from me +and dropping down on the far side of the stile. +</P> + +<P> +"Hezekiah, I've trotted across most of Westchester County after you, +and my arm is paralyzed from carrying that pumpkin. I must know what +you're up to right here, or I'll go home. Besides, there's a mist +falling and you'll be soaked. What do you suppose your father thinks +of your absence at this time of night?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, he'll never forgive me for not letting him in on this. This is +the grandest thing I ever thought of. Sit on this step and gently +incline your ear toward the house. It's about time those gentlemen +were leaving Cecilia, and they'll be galloping for their inn in a +minute, and then"— +</P> + +<P> +Hezekiah whistled the rest of it. +</P> + +<P> +While we waited, she bade me reset the candle and snuff the wick, which +I did of necessity with my fingers. Sitting on a stile with a pretty +girl is an experience that has been commended by the balladists, but +surely this felicity loses nothing where the night is fine. When you +get used to sitting in a drizzle in your dress-suit, while your +shirt-bosom assumes the consistency of a gum shoe and your collar glues +itself odiously to your neck, I dare say the ordeal may be borne +cheerfully, but my expressions of discomfort seemed only to amuse +Hezekiah. While we waited for I knew not what, I tried once or twice +to revert to the silver note-book, but without success. Hezekiah was a +mistress of the art of evasion with her tongue as well as her feet! +</P> + +<P> +"Wait till the evening performance is over and I'll talk about that. +'Sh! Quiet! Crawl over there out of the way, and when I say run, beat +it for the road." +</P> + +<P> +These last phrases were uttered in a whisper, her face close to my ear. +She gave me a little push, and I withdrew a few yards and waited. The +ground, I may say, was wet, and the drizzle had become a monotonous +autumn rain. +</P> + +<P> +The light of the lantern fell warmly upon Hezekiah's face as she held +its illumined countenance toward her, crouching on the stile-steps. I +heard now what her keener ear had caught earlier—the tramp of feet +along the path. The suitors were returning to the inn, and the voices +of one or two of them reached me. One—I thought it was Ormsby—was +execrating the weather. They were stepping along briskly, and my +remembrance of their retreat over this same stile through the amber +evening dusk was so vivid that I knew just how they would appear if a +light suddenly fell upon the path. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-293"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-293.jpg" ALT="The light of the lantern fell warmly upon Hezekiah's face." BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +The light of the lantern fell warmly upon Hezekiah's face. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +The nature of Hezekiah's undertaking suddenly dawned upon me. No one +but Hezekiah could ever have devised anything so preposterous, so +utterly lawless; but in spite of myself I waited in breathless +eagerness for the outcome. I could not have interfered now, if I had +wished to do so, without betraying her and involving myself in a +predicament that could not redound to my credit. +</P> + +<P> +Nearer and nearer came the patter of feet, and I heard, for I could not +see, the scraping of Hezekiah's slipper,—a wet little shoe by now!—as +she crept higher on our side of the stile. The first suitor groped +blindly for the steps, slipped on the wet plank, growled, and rose to +try again. That growl marked for me the leader of the van. Hartley +Wiggins, beyond a doubt, and in no good humor, I guessed! The others, +I judged, had trodden upon one another's heels at the moment Wiggins +stumbled. Thus let us imagine their approach—six gentlemen in top +hats headed for a stile on a chilly night of rain. +</P> + +<P> +It was at this strategic moment that Hezekiah pushed into the middle of +the stile-platform, its grinning face turned toward the advancing +suitors, the jack o' lantern her hand had fashioned. +</P> + +<P> +I marked its position by its faint glow an instant, but an instant +only. The world reeled for a moment before the sharp cry of a man in +fear. It cut the dark like a lash, and close upon it the second man +yelled, in a different key, but no less in accents of terror. The +first arrival had flung himself back, and so close upon him pressed the +others and so unexpected was the halt, that the nine men seemed to have +flung themselves together and to be struggling to escape from the +hideous thing that had interposed itself in their path. +</P> + +<P> +All was over in a moment. In the midst of the panic the lantern winked +out, and instantly Hezekiah was beside me. +</P> + +<P> +"Skip!" she commanded in a whisper; and catching my hand she led me off +at a brisk run. When we had gone a dozen rods she paused. We heard +voices from the stile, where the gentlemen were still engaged in +disentangling themselves; and then the planks boomed to their steps as +they crossed. They talked loudly among themselves discussing the cause +of their discomfiture. The lantern, I may add, had been knocked off +the stile by the thoughtful Hezekiah when she blew out the light. +</P> + +<P> +A moment more and all sounds of the suitors had died away. I stood +alone with Hezekiah in the midst of a meadow. She was breathing hard. +Suddenly she threw up her head, struck her hands together, and stamped +her foot upon the wet sod. I had waited for an outburst of laughter +now that we were safely out of the way, but I had reasoned without my +Hezekiah. Her mood was not the mood of mirth. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Hezekiah," I said when I had got my wind, "you pulled off your +joke, but you don't seem to be enjoying it. What's the matter?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, that Hartley Wiggins! I might have known it!" +</P> + +<P> +"Known what?" I asked, pricking up my ears. +</P> + +<P> +"That he would be afraid of a pumpkin with a candle inside of it. Did +you hear that yell?" +</P> + +<P> +"Anybody would have yelled," I suggested. "I think I should have +dropped dead if you'd tried it on me." +</P> + +<P> +"No, you would n't," she asserted with unexpected flattery. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't be deceived, Hezekiah; I should have been scared to death if +that thing had popped up in front of me." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't believe it. I gave you a worse test than that. When I +switched off the lights and swung a feather duster down the stair-well +by a string and tickled your face you did n't make a noise like a +circus calliope scaring horses in Main Street, Podunk. But that +Wiggins man!" +</P> + +<P> +"He's a friend of mine and as brave as a lion. Out in Dakota the +sheriff used to get him to go in and quiet things when the boys were +shooting up the town." +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe; but he shied at a pumpkin and can be no true knight of mine. +Cecilia may have him. I always suspected that he was n't the real +thing. Why, he's even afraid of Aunt Octavia!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I rather think <I>we 'd</I> better be!" +</P> + +<P> +I wanted to laugh, but I did not dare. I was not prepared for the +humor in which the panic of the suitors had left her. I did not quite +make out—and I am uncertain to this day—whether she had really wished +to test the courage of her sister's lovers or whether she had yielded +to a mischievous impulse in carrying the jack o' lantern to the stile +and thrusting it before those serious-minded gentlemen as they returned +from Hopefield. In any event Hartley Wiggins was out of it so far as +she, Hezekiah, was concerned. She trudged doggedly across the field +until we came presently to the highway. +</P> + +<P> +"My wheel's in the weeds somewhere; please pull it out for me. I'm +going home." +</P> + +<P> +"But not alone; I can't let you do that, Hezekiah." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, cheer up!" she laughed, aroused by my lugubrious tone. "And +here's something you asked me for. Don't drop it. It's Cecilia's +memorandum-book. Give it back to her, and be sure no one sees it, and +you need n't look into it yourself. And we've got to have a talk about +it and Cecilia. Let me see. There's an iron bridge across an arm of +that little lake over there, and just beyond it a big fallen tree. +To-morrow at nine o'clock I'll be there. I've got to tell you +something, Chimney-Man, without really telling you. You'll be there, +won't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll be there if I'm alive, Hezekiah." +</P> + +<P> +I had found the wheel and lighted the lamp. She scouted my suggestion +that I find a horse and drive her home. The lighting of the lamp +required time owing to the wind and rain; but when its thin ribbon of +light fell clearly upon the road, she seized the handle-bars and was +ready to mount without ado. +</P> + +<P> +She gave me her hand,—it was a cold, wet little hand, but there was a +good friendly grip in it. This was the first time I had touched +Hezekiah's hand, and I mention it because as I write I feel again the +pressure of her slim cold fingers. +</P> + +<P> +"Sorry you spoiled your clothes, but it was in a good cause. And you +'re a nice boy, Chimney-Man!" +</P> + +<P> +She shot away into the darkness, and the lamp's glow on the road +vanished in an instant; but before I lost her quite, her cheery whistle +blew back to me reassuringly. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap17"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XVII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +SEVEN GOLD REEDS +</H4> + +<P> +I woke the next morning to the banging of Miss Octavia's fowling-piece. +In spite of the crowding incidents of the day and night I had slept +soundly, and save for a stiffness of the legs I was none the worse for +my wetting. The service of the house was perfect, and in response to +my ring a man appeared who declared himself competent to knock my dress +clothes into shape again. +</P> + +<P> +I should hardly have believed that so much history had been made in a +night, if it had not been for certain indubitable evidence: Cecilia's +silver note-book; Hezekiah's handkerchief, which I had forgotten to +return to her; and a patch of tallow grease from the jack o' lantern +that had attached itself firmly to my coat-cuff. +</P> + +<P> +Cecilia met me at the foot of the stairs, looking rather worn, I +thought. We were safe from interruption a moment longer, as her aunt's +gun was still booming, and I followed her to the library. +</P> + +<P> +"Please don't tell me you have failed," she cried tearfully. "That +little book means so much, so very much to us all!" +</P> + +<P> +"Here it is, Miss Hollister," I said, placing it in her hand without +parley. "I beg to assure you that I return it just as you saw it last. +Please satisfy yourself that it has not been tampered with in any way. +I have not opened it; and it has not left my hand since I recovered it." +</P> + +<P> +She had almost snatched it from me, and she turned slightly away and +ran hurriedly over the leaves. +</P> + +<P> +In her relief she laughed happily; and with one of her charming, +graceful gestures she gave me her hand. +</P> + +<P> +"I thank you, Mr. Ames; thank you! thank you! You have rendered me the +greatest service. And I hope you were able to do so without serious +inconvenience to yourself." +</P> + +<P> +"On the other hand it was the smallest matter, and instead of being a +trouble I found the greatest pleasure in recovering it." +</P> + +<P> +I stood with my hands thrust carelessly into my trousers pockets, +rocking slightly upon my heels to convey a sense of the unimportance of +my service. It was a manner I had cultivated to meet the surprise and +gratitude of my clients when I had brought a seemingly incurable flue +into a state of subjection. I think I may have appeared a little +bored, as though I had accomplished a feat that was rather unworthy of +my powers. A doctor who prescribes the wrong pill and finds to his +amazement that it cures the patient, might improve upon that manner, +but not greatly. +</P> + +<P> +"You naturally wonder, Miss Hollister, how I found this trinket so +readily. And in order that you may not suspect perfectly innocent +persons, I will tell you exactly how I came by it. It was your belief +that you had left it on your dressing-table. But as a memorandum-book +of any character pertains to a writing-desk rather than to a +dressing-table, my interest centred at once upon such writing-table as +you doubtless have in your room." +</P> + +<P> +"There is a writing-desk, in the corner by the window, but"— +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, you are about to repeat your belief that you left the book on the +dressing-table and that it could not have moved to the desk. May I ask +whether you did not, just before you came down to dinner, scribble me a +line asking for an interview?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, yes; I remember that perfectly." +</P> + +<P> +"You wrote in some haste, as indicated by the handwriting in your +message. It is possible that you wrote and destroyed one note, or +perhaps two, before you had expressed yourself exactly to your liking. +We are all of us, with any sort of feeling for style, prone to just +such rejections." +</P> + +<P> +"It is possible that I did," she replied, coloring slightly. "I was +extremely anxious to see you." +</P> + +<P> +"Very well, then; is it not possible that in throwing the rejected +correspondence cards into the waste-paper basket that stands beside +your desk,—there is such a basket, is there not?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she replied breathlessly. +</P> + +<P> +"Is it not possible, then, that that little booklet, hardly heavier +than paper itself, may have been brushed off without your seeing it?" +</P> + +<P> +"It is possible; I must admit that it is possible; but"— +</P> + +<P> +"It is on that 'but' that any theory implicating another hand must +break. What I have indicated is exactly what must have happened. To +the nice care that characterizes the house-keeping of this +establishment we must now turn. I find that when I go to my own room +after dinner it is always in perfect order,—pens restored to the rack +on my writing-table, brushes laid straight on the dressing-table, and +so on. The well-trained maid who cares for your room, seeing scraps of +paper in the basket by your desk, naturally carried it off. When I +accepted your commission last night I went directly to the cellar, +sought the bin into which waste paper is thrown, and found among old +envelopes and other litter this small trinket, which but for my +promptness might have been lost forever." +</P> + +<P> +"It does n't seem possible," she faltered. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," I laughed easily, "possible or impossible, you could not on the +witness-stand swear that the book had not dropped into the waste-paper +basket precisely as I have described." +</P> + +<P> +"No, I suppose I couldn't," she answered slowly. +</P> + +<P> +My powers of mendacity were improving; but her relief at holding the +book again in her hand was so great that she would probably have +believed anything. +</P> + +<P> +"You see," she said, clasping the book tight, "this was given me for a +particular purpose and it contains a memorandum of greatest importance. +And I was in a panic when I found that it was gone, for my recollection +of certain items I had recorded here was confused, and there was no +possible way of setting myself straight. Now all is clear again. I +feel that I make poor acknowledgment of your service; but if, at any +time"— +</P> + +<P> +"Pray think no more of it," I replied; and at this moment Miss +Hollister appeared and called us to breakfast. +</P> + +<P> +"If it is perfectly agreeable to you, Arnold, I will hear the story of +the finding of the ghost at four o'clock, or just before tea. I have +sent a telegram to Mr. Pepperton asking him to be present. He 's at +his country home in Redding and can very easily motor down. As no +motors are allowed on my premises he shall be met at the gate with a +trap." +</P> + +<P> +"You have sent for Pepperton!" I exclaimed. +</P> + +<P> +"That is exactly what I have done, and as he knows that I never accept +apologies under any circumstances, he will not disappoint me. In +addition to reprimanding him for not telling me of the secret passage +in this house, I have another matter that concerns you, Arnold, which I +wish to lay before him. The new cook that Providence sent to my +kitchen yesterday is the best we have had, Cecilia, and I beg that you +both indulge yourselves in a second helping of country scrambled eggs." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Octavia made no further allusion to the incidents of the night, +but went on turning over her mail. I have neglected to say that her +library contained a most remarkable array of books in praise of man's +fortitude and daring. I have learned later that these had been +assembled for her by a distinguished scholar, and many of them were +rare editions. A "Karlamagnus Saga" elbowed Malory and the "Reali di +Francia;" and Roland's horn challenged in all languages. She greatly +admired and had often visited the Chateau de Luynes, and had a +portfolio filled with water-color and pen-and-ink drawings of it. Such +books as Viollet-le-Duc's "Dictionnaire du Mobilier Français" I +constantly found lying spread open on the library table. She read +German and French readily, and declared her purpose to attack old +French that she might pursue certain obscure <I>chansons de geste</I> which, +an Oxford professor had told her, were not susceptible of adequate +translation. Why should one read the news of the day when the news of +all time was available! Magazines and reviews she tolerated, but no +newspaper was as good as Froissart. She therefore read newspapers only +through a clipping bureau, which sent her items bearing upon her own +peculiar interests. By some error the story of a heavy embezzlement in +a city bank had that day crept in among a number of cuttings relating +to a ship that had been found somewhere off the Chilean coast with all +sails set and everything in perfect order, but with not a soul on +board. She expressed her bitterest contempt for men in responsible +positions who betrayed their trusts: highway robbery she thought a much +nobler crime, as the robber dignified his act by exposing himself to +personal danger. +</P> + +<P> +"In our day, Arnold," she said, placing her knife and fork carefully on +her plate, "in our day the ten commandments have lost their moral +significance and retain, I fear, only a very slight literary interest." +</P> + +<P> +She reminded Cecilia of an appointment to ride that morning; in the +early afternoon she was to install a new kennel-master; and otherwise +there was a full day ahead of her. It was a cheerful breakfast table. +A letter from my assistant confirming his telegraphed resignation did +not disturb me; Miss Octavia showed no further signs of abandoning her +quest of the golden coasts of youth, and Cecilia, having recovered her +notebook, faced the new day cheerfully. +</P> + +<P> +A little later I met Miss Hollister in the hall dressed for her ride. +</P> + +<P> +"Arnold, you may ride whenever you like. I may have forgotten to +mention it. What have you on hand this morning?" +</P> + +<P> +"An appointment with a lady," I replied. +</P> + +<P> +"If you are about to meet the owner of that Beacon Street slipper I +wish you good luck." +</P> + +<P> +She was drawing on her gauntlets, and turned away to hide a smile, I +thought; then she tapped me lightly with her riding-crop. +</P> + +<P> +"Cecilia's silver note-book was missing last night. She told me of her +loss with tears. She has it again this morning. Did you restore it?" +</P> + +<P> +"It was my good fortune to do so." +</P> + +<P> +"Then allow me to add my thanks to hers. You are an unusually +practical person, Arnold Ames, as well as the possessor of an +imagination that pleases me. You are becoming more and more essential +to me. Cecilia approaches, and I cannot say more at this time." +</P> + +<P> +When they had ridden out of the porte-cochère I set off across the +fields to keep my tryst with Hezekiah. The air had been washed sweet +and clean by the rain of the night, and sky was never bluer. I was +surprised at my own increasing detachment from the world. Nothing that +had happened before the Asolando mattered greatly; my meeting with Miss +Octavia Hollister had marked a climacteric from which all events must +now be reckoned. I had embarked with high hope in a profession to +which I had been drawn from youth, had failed utterly to find clients, +and had therefore taken up the doctoring of flues, a vocation whose +honors are few and dubious, and in which I felt it to be damning praise +that I was called the best in America. My days at Hopefield were the +happiest of my life. Few as they had been, they had changed my gray +bleak course into a path bright with promise. The world had been too +much with me, and I had escaped from it as completely as though I had +stepped upon another planet "where all is possible and all unknown." +</P> + +<P> +I reached the fallen tree that Hezekiah had appointed as our +trysting-place a little ahead of time, and indulged in pleasant +speculations while I waited. I was looking toward the hills expecting +her to come skimming along the highway on her bicycle, when a splash +caused me to turn to the lake. Dull of me not to have known that +Hezekiah would contrive a new entrance for a scene so charmingly set as +this! She had stolen upon me in a light skiff, and laughed to see how +her silent approach startled me. She dropped one oar and used the +other as a paddle, driving the boat with a sure hand through the reeds +into the bank. +</P> + +<P> +"'Tis morning and the days are long!"<BR> +</P> + +<P> +</P> + +<P> +Such was Hezekiah's greeting as she jumped ashore. She wore a dark +green skirt and coat, and a narrow four-in-hand cravat tied under a +flannel collar that clasped her throat snugly. A boy's felt hat, with +the brim pinned up in front, covered her head. +</P> + +<P> +"You seem none the worse for your wetting, Hezekiah. You must have +been soaked." +</P> + +<P> +"So must you, Chimneys, but you look as fit as I feel, and I never felt +better. Did they catch you crawling in last night?" +</P> + +<P> +"I did n't see a soul. You know I'm an old member of the family now. +Nobody was ever as nice to me as your Aunt Octavia." +</P> + +<P> +"How about Cecilia?" +</P> + +<P> +"Having found her silver note-book and given it back to her before +breakfast, I may say that our relations are altogether cordial." +</P> + +<P> +"Are you in love with her—yet?" asked Hezekiah, carelessly, tossing a +pebble into the lake. The "yet" was so timed that it splashed with the +pebble. +</P> + +<P> +"No; not—yet," I replied. +</P> + +<P> +"It will come," said Hezekiah a little ruefully, casting a pebble +farther upon the crinkled water. +</P> + +<P> +"You mean, Hezekiah, that men always fall in love with your sister." +</P> + +<P> +She nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, she's a good deal of a girl." +</P> + +<P> +"Beautiful and no end cultivated. They all go crazy about her." +</P> + +<P> +"You mean Hartley Wiggins and his fellow-bandits at the Prescott Arms." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; and lots of others." +</P> + +<P> +"And sometimes, Hezekiah, it has seemed to you that she got all the +admiration, and that you did n't get your share. So when her suitors +began a siege of the castle whose gates were locked against you, you +plugged the chimney with a trunk-tray, and played at being ghost and +otherwise sought to terrify your sister's lovers." +</P> + +<P> +"That's not nice, Chimneys. You mean that I'm jealous." +</P> + +<P> +"No. I don't mean that you are jealous now: I throw it into the remote +and irrevocable past. You were jealous. You don't care so much now. +And I hope you will care less!" +</P> + +<P> +"That is being impertinent. If you talk that way I shall call you Mr. +Ames and go home!" +</P> + +<P> +"You can't do that, Hezekiah." +</P> + +<P> +"I should like to know why not? If you say I 'm jealous of Cecilia +now, or that I ever was, I shall be very, very angry. For it's not +true." +</P> + +<P> +"No. You see things very differently now. You told me only last night +that Cecilia might have Hartley Wiggins. Assuming that she wants him! +And you and he have been good friends, have n't you? You had good +times on the other side. And while Cecilia was in town assisting +Providence in finding your aunt a cook, you went walking with him." +</P> + +<P> +"I did, I did!" mocked Hezekiah. "And why do you suppose I did?" +</P> + +<P> +"Because Wiggy's the best of fellows; a solid, substantial citizen, who +raises wheat to make bread out of." +</P> + +<P> +"And angel food and ginger cookies," added Hezekiah, feeling absently +in the pockets of her coat. "No, Chimneys, you 're a nice boy and you +don't yell like a wild man when a feather-duster hits you in the dark; +but there are some things you don't know yet." +</P> + +<P> +"I am here to grow wise at the feet of Hezekiah, Daughter of Kings. +Open the book of wisdom and teach me the alphabet, but don't be sad if +I balk at the grammar." +</P> + +<P> +"I never knew all the alphabet myself," said Hezekiah dolefully; then +she laughed abruptly. "I was bounced from two convents and no end of +Hudson River and Fifth Avenue education shops." +</P> + +<P> +"The brutality of that, Hezekiah, wrings my heart! Yet you are the +best teacher I ever had, and I thought I was educated when I met you. +But I had only been to school, which is different. Not until the first +time our eyes met, not until that supreme moment"— +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Ames," Hezekiah interrupted, in the happiest possible imitation of +Miss Octavia's manner, "if you think that, because I am a poor lone +girl who knows nothing of the great, wide world, I am a fair mark for +your cajolery, I assure you that you were never more mistaken in your +life!" +</P> + +<P> +"You ought n't to mimic your aunt. It is n't respectful; and besides +you have something to tell me. What's all this rumpus about Cecilia's +silver memorandum-book? Suppose we discuss that and get through with +it." +</P> + +<P> +We were sitting on the fallen tree, which lay partly in the lake, and +Hezekiah leaned over and broke off a number of reeds from the thicket +at the water's edge. Out of her pocket she drew a small penknife and +trimmed them uniformly. +</P> + +<P> +"You see," she began, biting her lip in the earnestness of her labor, +"I'm going to tell you something, and yet I 'm not going to tell you. +So far as you and I have gone you 've been tolerably satisfactory. If +I did n't think you had some wits in your head I should n't have +bothered with you at all. That's frank, is n't it?" +</P> + +<P> +"It certainly is. But I'm terribly fussed for fear I may not be equal +to this new ordeal." +</P> + +<P> +"If you fail we shall never meet again; that's all there is to that. +Now listen real hard. You know something about it already, but not the +main point. Aunt Octavia got father to consent to let her marry us +off—Cecilia and me. Cecilia, being older, came first. I was to keep +out of the way, and father and I were not to come to Aunt Octavia's new +house up there or meddle in any way. While we were abroad I was +treated as a little girl, and not as a grown-up at all. But you see I +'m really nineteen, and some of Cecilia's suitors were nice to me when +we were traveling. They were nice to me on Cecilia's account, you +know." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course. You're so hard to look at, it must have been painful to +them to be nice to you,—almost like taking poison! Go on, Hezekiah!" +</P> + +<P> +"You need n't interrupt me like that. Well, as part of the +understanding, and Cecilia agreed to it,—she thought she had to for +papa's sake,—she was to marry a particular man. Do you understand me, +a particular man? Aunt Octavia gave her the little note-book—she +bought it at a shop in Paris at the time Cecilia consented to the +plan—and she was to keep a sort of diary, so that she'd know when the +right man turned up. Now we will drop the note-book for a minute; only +I'll say that Cecilia was to keep the book all to herself and not show +it to any one, not even to Aunt Octavia, you know, until the right man +had asked Cecilia to marry him. Now who do you suppose, Mr. Ames, that +man is?" +</P> + +<P> +I watched her hands as they deftly cut and fashioned the dry reeds. +The air grew warm as the sun climbed to the zenith, and Hezekiah flung +aside her coat. The breeze caught the ends of her tie and snapped them +behind her. She was wholly absorbed in her task, and no boy could have +managed a pocket-knife better. The first reed she made a trifle longer +than her hand; the succeeding ones she trimmed to graduated lessening +lengths, till seven in all had been cut, and then she notched them. +</P> + +<P> +"Seven," she murmured, laying them neatly in order on her knee. "I +remember the right number by a poem I read the other day in an old +magazine." +</P> + +<P> +She reached down and plucked several long leaves of tough grass with +which she began to bind the reeds together, repeating,— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"Seven gold reeds grew tall and slim,<BR> +Close by the river's beaded brim.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"Syrnix the naiad flitted past:<BR> +Pan, the goat-hoofed, followed fast.<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"It will be easier," said Hezekiah, "if you hold the pipes while I tie +them." +</P> + +<P> +I found this propinquity wholly agreeable. It was pleasant to sit on a +log beside Hezekiah. It seemed no far cry to the storied Mediterranean +and Pan and dryads and naiads, as Hezekiah bound her reeds to the music +of couplets. There was no self-consciousness in her recitation; she +seemed to be telling me of something that she had seen herself an hour +ago. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"He spread his arms to clasp her there<BR> +Just as she vanished into air.<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +"And to his bosom warm and rough<BR> +Drew the gold reeds close enough.<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"I don't remember the rest," she broke off. "But there! That's a pipe +fit for any shepherd." +</P> + +<P> +She put it to her lips and blew. I shall not pretend that the result +was melodious: she whistled much better without the reeds; but the +sight of her, sitting on the fallen tree beside the lake, beating time +with her foot, her head thrown back, her eyes half-closed in a mockery +of rapture at the shrill, wheezy uncertainties and ineptitudes she +evoked, thrilled me with new and wonderful longings. A heart, a spirit +like hers would never grow old! She was next of kin to all the +elusive, fugitive company of the elf-world. And on such a pipe as she +had strung together beside that pond, to this day Sicilian shepherd +boys whistle themselves into tune with Theocritus! +</P> + +<A NAME="img-316"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-316.jpg" ALT="She put it to her lips and blew." BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +She put it to her lips and blew. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"Take it," she said; "I can't tell you more than I have; and yet it is +all there, Chimneys. Read the riddle of the reeds if you can." +</P> + +<P> +I took the pipe and turned it over carefully in my hands; but I fear my +thoughts were rather of the hands that had fashioned it, the fingers +that had danced nimbly upon the stops. +</P> + +<P> +"There are seven reeds,—seven," she affirmed. +</P> + +<P> +She amused herself by skipping pebbles over the surface of the water +while I pondered. And I deliberated long, for one did not like to +blunder before Hezekiah! Then I jumped up and called to her. +</P> + +<P> +"One, two, three, four, five, six—seven! Not until the seventh man +offers himself shall Cecilia have a husband! Is that the answer?" +</P> + +<P> +For a moment Hezekiah watched the widening ripples made by the casting +of her last pebble; then she came back and resumed her seat. +</P> + +<P> +"You have done well, Chimney Man; and now I 'll not make you guess any +more, though I found it all out for myself. When Aunt Octavia gave +that memorandum-book to Cecilia, I knew it must have something to do +with the seventh man. You know I love all Aunt Octavia's nonsense +because it's the kind of foolishness I like myself, and the idea of a +pretty little note-book to write down proposals in was precisely the +sort of thing that would have occurred to my aunt. And it was in the +bargain, too, that she herself should not in any way interfere, or try +to influence the course of events: it should be the seventh suitor, +willy-nilly. And I suspect she's been a little scared too." +</P> + +<P> +"She has indeed! She was almost ready to throw the whole scheme over +last night. Your naughtiness had got on her nerves." +</P> + +<P> +"You missed the target that time: Aunt Octavia loves my naughtiness, +and I think she has really been afraid Sir Pumpkin Wiggins would catch +me. Now I did n't roam my aunt's house just for fun. I was doing my +best to keep Cecilia from getting into some scrape about that +seventh-suitor plan. I found out by chance how to get into Hopefield, +and about the hidden stairway and the old rooms tucked away there. +Papa really discovered that. A carpenter in Katonah who worked on the +house helped to build papa's bungalow, and he told us how that ruin +came to be there. That dyspepsia-cure man, who also immortalized +himself by inventing the ribless umbrella, was very superstitious. He +believed that if he built an entirely new house he would die. So he +had his architect build around and retain those two rooms and that +stairway of a house that had been on the ground almost since the +Revolution. Mr. Pepperton, the architect, humored him, but hid the +remains of the relic as far out of sight as possible." +</P> + +<P> +"Trust Pep for that! And he did it neatly!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; but it did n't save the umbrella-man; he died anyhow; or maybe +his pies killed him. Papa was so curious about it that he took me with +him one night just before Aunt Octavia moved here, and he and I found +the rooms and the stair and the secret spring by which, if you know +just where to poke the wall in the fourth-floor hall, you can disappear +as mysteriously as you please." +</P> + +<P> +"But how on earth did you darken the halls so easily? You nearly gave +me heart-disease doing that!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, that was a mere matter of a young lady in haste! When I found how +easily I could pass you on the stair it became a fascinating game, and +it was no end of fun to see just how long it would take you to catch +me." +</P> + +<P> +"I wish, Hezekiah, that you would stay caught!" +</P> + +<P> +"Be very, very careful, sir! We're talking business now. There's +another ordeal for you before you dare become sentimental." +</P> + +<P> +"Then hasten; let us be after it." +</P> + +<P> +"Things are in a serious predicament, I can tell you. I was frightened +when I looked into that note-book,—I did n't like to do that, but I +had to assist Providence a little. Five men have already got their +quietus." +</P> + +<P> +"Then why don't they clear out, and stop their nonsense?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it's their pride, I suppose; and every man probably thinks that +when Cecilia has seen a little more of him in particular, in contrast +with the others, he will win her favor. They 're afraid of one +another, those men; that's the reason they've been herding together so +close since that first day you came. Mr. Wiggins was taking it for +granted that he was the whole thing—just like the man!—and those +others forced him to join in some sort of arrangement by which they +were to hang together. These calls in a bunch came from that, as +though any one of them would n't take advantage of the others if he saw +a chance! Some of this I got from Wiggy himself, the rest I just +guessed." +</P> + +<P> +"But you may not know that they sent a delegation after me into town, +to warn me off the grass." +</P> + +<P> +"That was Mr. Dick. He never saw me when Cecilia was around. And he +was terribly snippy sometimes, and supercilious; but I'm going to get +even with him. I've about underlined him for number six," she +concluded, with the manner of a queen who, about to give her chief +executioner his orders for the day, glances calmly over the list of +victims. +</P> + +<P> +"That's a good idea; Dick is insufferable; I hope you have n't counted +wrong." +</P> + +<P> +"As we were saying, about the note-book," she resumed, "the fifth man +has already been respectfully declined. The dates of the proposals are +written in the note-book; so I learned from the book that Mr. Ormsby, +Mr. Arbuthnot, and Mr. Gorse had proposed on the steamer. Professor +Hume, as you know, tried his luck at Hopefield; and Lord Arrowood must +have stopped Cecilia as she was riding to the station on my bicycle +yesterday morning. His goose is cooked." +</P> + +<P> +"His gooseberry pie was cooked, but I took it away from him. No pie +sacred to Hezekiah can be confiscated by an indigent lord so long as I +keep my present health and spirits. It's the close season for lords in +Westchester County; I potted the last one. By the way, he thought you +were a real ghost when you were playing tag with him in the dark." +</P> + +<P> +"He stopped to tell papa good-bye and spoke very highly of you; papa +and you are the only gentlemen he met in America. But now we come to +Mr. Wiggins." +</P> + +<P> +"We do; and why in the name of all that is beautiful and good has n't +he tried his luck?" +</P> + +<P> +"Because, knowing Cecilia's admiration for him," replied Hezekiah +demurely, "I have kept him so diverted that he has n't been able to +bring himself to the scratch." +</P> + +<P> +She examined the palm of her hand critically to allow me time to grasp +this. +</P> + +<P> +"You did n't want him to blunder in as the first, fourth, or sixth man?" +</P> + +<P> +Hezekiah gravely nodded her pretty head. +</P> + +<P> +"And while you were engaged in this sisterly labor, Cecilia has been +afraid that you were seriously interested in him!" +</P> + +<P> +"That is like Cecilia. She's fine, and would n't cause me trouble for +anything;" and there was no doubt of Hezekiah's sincerity. +</P> + +<P> +"But now that I see the light and understand all this, how can we make +sure that Wiggy will be on the spot at the right moment? While we sit +here, he may be the sixth man! There's my friend, the eminent thinker +from Nebraska; he's likely to kneel before Cecilia at any moment, and +Henderson and Shallenberger are not asleep." +</P> + +<P> +"That's all true; and you've got to fix it." +</P> + +<P> +"You're leaving the fate of Wiggins and your sister in my hands? +That's a heavy responsibility, Hezekiah. I might take care of Wiggy by +asking Cecilia to marry me, being careful to have him appear +johnny-on-the-spot when I had been duly declined." +</P> + +<P> +"Um, I should n't take any chances if I were you," she replied, +feigning to look at an imaginary bird in a tree-top; "for if you had +counted wrong and were really the seventh man, she would have to accept +you!" +</P> + +<P> +"Hezekiah!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I really did n't mean what you thought I meant. We don't need to +discuss it any more. That's the ordeal I've arranged for you," she +answered, and set her lips sternly. +</P> + +<P> +"But, my dear Hezekiah, by what means can this be effected? I don't +dare tell him the combination he's playing against or sit on him until +his hour strikes." +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly not; you must n't tell him or anybody else. You know the +plan; but you're not supposed to; and nobody must know I've meddled. +Meanwhile, Cecilia must expose herself to proposals at all times. Aunt +Octavia's heart would be broken if she thought Providence had been +tampered with. She likes Wiggy well enough, except that his ancestors +were all Tories and he can't be a son of the Revolution." +</P> + +<P> +"Too bad; it was very careless of him not to do better about his +ancestors; but he can't change that now." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you've behaved with considerable intelligence so far, and now +with your friend's fate in your hands you will need to use great +judgment and tact in all that follows. I wash my hands of the whole +business." +</P> + +<P> +She rose quickly and pointed to her coat. +</P> + +<P> +"Drop it into the boat for me, Chimneys. We meet in funny places, +don't we? Papa expects me for luncheon, and I must row back and get my +bicycle. You? No, you can't go along; you've got a lot of thinking to +do, and you'd better be doing it." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap18"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XVIII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +TROUBLE AT THE PRESCOTT ARMS +</H4> + +<P> +A few minutes later, as I swung along the highway toward the Prescott +Arms, I saw Cecilia Hollister riding toward me at a lively gallop. She +crossed the bridge without checking her horse, and then, with a hurried +glance over her shoulder, she pointed with her crop to a by-way that +led deviously into a strip of forest and vanished. +</P> + +<P> +I hurried after her, and found her waiting for me in a quiet lane. She +had dismounted and seemed greatly disturbed as I addressed her. Her +horse, a superb Estabrook thoroughbred, had evidently been pushed hard. +Cecilia had taken off her hat, and was giving a touch to the wayward +strands of hair that had been shaken loose in her flight. The color +glowed in her dark cheeks, and her eyes were bright with excitement. +</P> + +<P> +"I hadn't expected to meet you; I thought you rode off with your aunt +toward Mt. Kisco." +</P> + +<P> +"We did; but on our way home Aunt Octavia stopped to call on a friend, +and as I did n't feel in a mood for visits this morning I rode on +alone." +</P> + +<P> +She spoke further of her aunt's friend, of whom I had never heard +before, to calm herself before touching upon the cause of her wild ride +or her wish to speak to me. She pinned on her hat and drew on her +riding-gloves while I helped to make conversation, and soon regained +her composure. The haste with which she had withdrawn into the wood, +and the imperative wave of her crop by which she had bidden me follow +her, indicated that something of importance had happened and that she +wished to confide in me. +</P> + +<P> +"I was walking my horse in the road beyond Bedford, just after I left +Aunt Octavia, when who should ride up beside me but Mr. Wiggins. He +had evidently been following me." +</P> + +<P> +She expected me to express surprise; and with the information that +Hezekiah had just imparted fresh in my mind I dare say she was not +disappointed in the effect of her words. I was thinking rapidly and +fearfully. If my friend had sought her in the highway and offered +himself in some fresh accession of ardor, he might even now be a +rejected and hopeless man; but I was unwilling to believe that this had +happened. +</P> + +<P> +"Hartley is fond of riding, and nothing could be more natural than for +him to have his horse sent out from town." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it's natural enough," she cried; "but I was greatly taken aback +when he rode up beside me." +</P> + +<P> +"An old friend joining you in the highway, on a bright October morning! +I can't for the life of me see anything surprising or alarming in that, +Miss Hollister." +</P> + +<P> +"But only yesterday, you remember I told you I had seen him walking +with my sister." +</P> + +<P> +"It's perfectly easy to talk to Hezekiah! It seems to me that that +only shows a friendly attitude toward all the family. Let us deal with +facts if I am to help you. I understand perfectly that Hartley Wiggins +wishes to marry you; and that being the case I see no reason why he +should n't be courteous to your sister. I 've always heard that it's +the proper thing to be polite to the sisters, cousins, and aunts of +one's prospective wife. I know of no more delightful occupation than +listening to Hezekiah. Just now, for an hour or so, I have been +enjoying her conversation myself. Nothing could be more refreshing or +stimulating. She is an unusual young woman, and most amazingly wise." +</P> + +<P> +"You have seen Hezekiah this morning!" she exclaimed. +</P> + +<P> +"I have indeed. I hope I may say that she and I are becoming good +friends. I am learning to understand her; though, believe me, I don't +speak boastingly. However, this morning we got on famously together. +But won't you continue and tell me what happened in the road when +Hartley rode up beside you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, nothing happened; really nothing! Nothing could have happened, +for the excellent reason that I ran away from him. It was n't what he +did or said; it was the fear of what he might say!" +</P> + +<P> +"If it had been Mr. Dick who had joined you in exactly the same way in +the highway, you would not have minded in the least, Miss Hollister. +Is n't that the truth?" +</P> + +<P> +Her hand that had rested on the pommel of her saddle dropped to her +side, and she stood erect, her eyes wide with wonder. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean?" she gasped. +</P> + +<P> +"I mean exactly what I have said; that if it had been that strutting +young philosopher from the West you would—well, you would have allowed +him to say what was in his mind, no matter whether it had been his +latest thought on Kantianism, the weather, or his admiration for +yourself. Am I not right?" +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder, I wonder"—she faltered, drawing away, the better to observe +me. +</P> + +<P> +"You wonder how much I know! To relieve your mind without parleying +further, I will say to you that I know everything." +</P> + +<P> +"Then Aunt Octavia must have told you; and that seems incredible. It +was distinctly understood"— +</P> + +<P> +"Your aunt told me nothing. Not by words did any one tell me." +</P> + +<P> +"Not by words?" she asked, eyeing me wonderingly and clearly fearing +that I might be playing some trick upon her. "Then can it be that +Hezekiah—but no! Hezekiah does n't know!" +</P> + +<P> +"Trust Hezekiah for not telling secrets," I answered evasively. "Give +me credit for some imagination. The air of Hopefield is stimulating, +and in the few days I have spent in your aunt's house I have learned +much that I never dreamed of before. I am not at all the person you +greeted with so much courtesy in the library when I arrived there, a +chimney-doctor and an ignorant person, a few afternoons ago,—called, +as I thought, to prescribe for flues that proved to be in admirable +condition, but really summoned by higher powers to assist the fates in +the proper and orderly performance of their duties to several members +of the house of Hollister,—yourself among them." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't understand it; you are wholly inexplicable." +</P> + +<P> +"I am the simplest and least guileful of beings, I assure you. Yet I +have done some things here not in the slightest way related to chimney +doctoring; and something else I expect to do for which I believe you +will thank me through all the years of your life." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, if you really know, that is possible!" she sighed wearily. "I am +very tired of it all. I was very foolish ever to have agreed to Aunt +Octavia's plan. You have seen those men,—any one of them might, you +know"— And she shrugged her shoulders impatiently. +</P> + +<P> +"Any one of them might be the seventh man! There, you see I do know! +And I mean to help you!" +</P> + +<P> +She was immensely relieved; there was no question of that. Gratitude +shone in her eyes; and then, as I marvelled at their beautiful dark +depths, fear suddenly possessed them. The change in her was startling. +Several motors had swept by in the outer road while we talked; they +were faintly visible through the trees; and just now we both heard a +horse and caught a fleeting glimpse of Hartley Wiggins, riding slowly +with bowed head toward the inn. Cecilia's horse flung up his head, but +she clapped her hands upon his nostrils and held them there to prevent +his whinnying until that figure of despair had passed out of hearing. +</P> + +<P> +I was smitten with sorrow for Hartley Wiggins. I could put myself in +his place and imagine his feelings as he rode like a defeated general +back to the inn, there to face the other suitors after the humiliating +experience which Cecilia Hollister had just described. In his +ignorance of the cause of her eagerness to escape from him, he no doubt +believed that he had all unconsciously made himself intolerable to her. +It was plain that that glimpse of him had touched Cecilia's pity; if I +had doubted the sincerity of her regard for him before, I spurned the +thought now. I was anxious to requicken hope in her,—an odd office +for me to assume when in my own affairs I had always yielded my sword +readily to the blue devils! Yet during my short stay at Hopefield I +had already found it possible to restore Miss Octavia's confidence in +her own chosen destiny, and in this delicate love-affair between +Cecilia Hollister and my best friend I proffered counsel and sympathy +with an assurance that astonished me. +</P> + +<P> +"I have told you enough, Miss Hollister, to make it clear that I am in +a position to help you. Believe me, I have no other business before me +but to complete the service I have undertaken." +</P> + +<P> +"But there is always"—she began, then ceased abruptly, and lifted her +head proudly—"there is always Mr. Wiggins's attitude toward my sister. +Not for anything in the world would I cause her the slightest +unhappiness. You must see that, now that you know her." +</P> + +<P> +I laughed aloud. Cecilia's concern for Hezekiah's happiness was so +absurd that I could not restrain my mirth for a moment. Displeasure +showed promptly in Cecilia's face. +</P> + +<P> +"I am sorry if you doubt my sincerity, Mr. Ames. I will put the matter +directly, to make sure I have not been misunderstood heretofore, and +say that if Hezekiah is interested in Hartley Wiggins and cares for him +in the least,—you know she is young and susceptible,—I shall take +care that he never sees me again." +</P> + +<P> +"Pardon me, but maybe you don't quite understand Hezekiah!" +</P> + +<P> +"Is it possible, then, that you do?" she inquired coldly. "I imagine +your opportunities for seeing her have not been numerous." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it is n't so much a matter of seeing her, when you've read of +her all your life and dreamed about her. She's in every fairy story +that ever was written; she dances through the mythologies of all races. +Hers is the kingdom of the pure in heart. Her mind is like a beautiful +bright meadow by the sea, and her thoughts the dipping of swallow-wings +on lightly swaying grasses." +</P> + +<P> +Cecilia's manner changed, and she smiled. +</P> + +<P> +"You seem to have an attack of something; it looks serious. You have +n't known her long enough to find out so much!" +</P> + +<P> +"Longer than you would believe. She and I sat on the shore together +when Ulysses sailed by; we were among those present at the sack of +Troy; we heard Roland's ivory trumpet at Roncesvalles." +</P> + +<P> +"Such words from you amaze me. I didn't imagine there was so much +romance in chimneys." +</P> + +<P> +"They are full of it! Commend me to an open fire, with a flue that +knows its business, and a dream or two! I 've renounced my profession. +I shall hereafter offer myself as adviser to persons in need of +illusions; we 'd all be poets if we dared!" +</P> + +<P> +I helped her into the saddle, and she looked down at me with amusement +in her eyes. My praise of Hezekiah had pleased her, and I felt, as +when we journeyed together into town, her kindly, human qualities. The +perplexities and embarrassments resulting from her compact with her +aunt had doubtless checked the natural flow of her spirits. She talked +on buoyantly, though I was eager to be off, to avert the catastrophe +that only her flight had prevented and which Wiggins might at any +moment precipitate. She gathered up her reins. +</P> + +<P> +"You are not coming home for luncheon? Then I shall see you at four. +I hope the hiding-place of the ghost will prove interesting. Aunt +Octavia has built her hopes high, and I may add that she has expressed +the greatest admiration of you to me. On her ride this morning she +declared that great things are in store for you. I hope so, too, Mr. +Ames." +</P> + +<P> +She gave me her hand and rode away, and before I had reached the +highway she was across the bridge and galloping rapidly homeward. +</P> + +<P> +The inn was a mile distant, and I set off at a brisk pace, turning over +in my mind various projects for controlling the characters now upon the +stage in such manner that Wiggins should become the seventh man. +Cecilia could not always run away from him without violating the terms +of her aunt's stipulation; and it was unlikely that she would attempt +further to guide or thwart the pointing finger of fate. I relied +little upon any arrangement effected among the suitors to stand +together. Hume had already found a chance to speak. Lord Arrowood had +bitten the dust and turned his face homeward, and Wiggins had been near +the brink only that morning. It was unlikely that any of the active +candidates remaining would stumble upon the key to the situation, which +Hezekiah had given into my keeping. +</P> + +<P> +It was well on toward two o'clock when I approached the inn. Before +long the suitors would depart for their afternoon call at the Manor, +which was an established event of the day. Just as I was about to +enter the gate I was arrested by an imperious voice calling, and John +Stewart Dick came running toward me. He had evidently been expecting +me, and I paused, thinking him about to renew his attack upon me. To +my surprise he greeted me cordially, even offering his hand. +</P> + +<P> +"You thought you would come after all. Well, I'm glad you did. I've +decided that there should be peace between us." +</P> + +<P> +In stature he was the shortest of the suitors, but what he lacked in +height was compensated for by a tremendous dignity. A dark Napoleonic +lock lay across his forehead, and his clear-cut profile otherwise +suggested the Corsican, the resemblance being, I wickedly assumed, one +that the philosopher encouraged. +</P> + +<P> +"You have several times addressed me, Mr. Ames, in a spirit of +contumely which I have hesitated to punish by the chastisement you +deserve; but I am willing to let bygones be bygones." +</P> + +<P> +His changed tone put me on guard, but it was impossible for me to take +him seriously. In spite of the fact that he was a vigorous muscular +young fellow who could have threshed me without trouble, I could not +resist the impulse he always roused in me to address him in language +any self-respecting man would resent. +</P> + +<P> +"Chant the <I>dies iræ</I> with considerable <I>allegro</I>, Plato, for I am +hungry and would fain pay for food at the adjacent inn." +</P> + +<P> +"I will overlook the coarseness of your humor," he rejoined haughtily. +"My own time is as valuable as yours. You have sneered at my +attainments as a philosopher; but I will pass that for the present. I +am disposed to treat you magnanimously. You have an excellent opinion +of yourself; you have come here as an intruder upon the rights of those +of us who followed Cecilia Hollister across Europe and home to America; +but in spite of this I waive my rights in your favor. I had intended +to offer myself to Miss Hollister this afternoon, with every hope of +success, but I yield to you. My only request is that you inform me at +once when you have learned her decision." +</P> + +<P> +He clapped on his cap and folded his arms, clearly satisfied with the +expressions of surprise to which my feelings betrayed me. Could it be +possible that he had guessed the truth, perhaps by deductive processes +of which I was ignorant? Whether he had reasoned from some remark +thrown out by Miss Octavia as to the influence of seven in the affairs +of life and her application of that fateful principle to the choice of +a husband for Cecilia, I could not guess, but assuming that he had +caught that clue, he might readily enough have managed the rest. +Having crossed on the steamer with the suitor host, a man of his +intelligence might readily enough have kept track of the vanquished. +In any case he had hit upon me as a likely victim, and on the plea of +generously waiting till I had tried my luck he hoped to thrust me +forward as the sixth suitor, and immediately thereafter project himself +as the inevitable seventh man. The whole situation was rendered +perilously complex by the knowledge that, unaided, he had possessed +himself of so much dangerous information. I must not, however, allow +him to see what I suspected. +</P> + +<P> +"My dear professor, there's an ancient warning against the Greeks +bearing gifts. You must give me time to inspect the horse." +</P> + +<P> +"Are you questioning my good faith?" +</P> + +<P> +"Be it far from me! I'm a good deal tickled though by your genial +assumption that if I offered myself to this lady I should be declined +with thanks. You have fretted yourself into a state of mind that bodes +ill for American philosophy." +</P> + +<P> +He was again belligerent. It may have occurred to him that I might +know as much as he, but at any rate he grinned; it was a saturnine grin +I did not like. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm starving to death at the door of an inn, and you must excuse me. +Have you seen Hartley Wiggins lately?" +</P> + +<P> +"I have, indeed! He's taken to lonely horseback rides; he's off +somewhere now. He has n't the stamina for a contest like this. One by +one the autumn leaves are falling," he added, with special intention, +"and I have given you your chance." +</P> + +<P> +"Thanks, light-bringing Socrates from the lands of the Ogalallas! For +so much courtesy I shall take pleasure in reading all your posthumous +works. Let us cease being absurd." +</P> + +<P> +He laid his hand on my arm and lowered his tone. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't be an ass. If you and I both know what's underneath all this +mystery we might come to an understanding." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't follow you. Please make a light, like a man about to have an +idea." +</P> + +<P> +"You mean that you don't understand?" He eyed me doubtfully, uncertain +whether I knew or not. +</P> + +<P> +"You have implied that I am incapable of understanding; suppose we let +it go at that." +</P> + +<P> +With this I left him and entered the low-raftered office—it was really +a pleasant lounging-room, unspoiled by the usual hotel-office +paraphernalia. Dick had followed close behind, and as I paused, +hearing voices raised angrily in the dining-room beyond, I turned to +him for an explanation. As the suitors had been the only guests of the +inn since their advent, having stipulated that the proprietor should +exclude other applicants for meals or lodging, I attributed the +commotion to strife in their own ranks. Dick nodded sullenly and bade +me keep on. +</P> + +<P> +"You 'd better take a look at those fellows. I 've quit them—quite +out of it; remember that." +</P> + +<P> +The dining-room door was slightly ajar, and I flung it open. +</P> + +<P> +Ormsby, Shallenberger, Henderson, Hume, Gorse, and Arbuthnot had been +engaged with cards at a round table in an alcove, but some dispute +having apparently risen, they stood in their places engaged in +acrimonious debate. As near as I could determine, some one of them—I +think it was Ormsby—wished to abandon the game, which had been +undertaken to determine in what order they should be permitted to pay +visits to Hopefield in future, the calls <I>en masse</I> having grown +intolerable. They were so absorbed in their argument that they failed +to note my appearance, and I stood unobserved within the door. The +dialogue between the card-players was swift and hot. +</P> + +<P> +"It's no good, I tell you!" cried Ormsby. "There's no fairness in this +unless all take their chances together!" +</P> + +<P> +"You ought to have thought of that before we began. This was your +scheme, but because the cards are running against you, you want to +quit. I say we'll go on!" This from Henderson, who struck the table +sharply as he concluded. +</P> + +<P> +"You knew Wiggins and Dick were n't going in when we started, and you +are not likely to get them in now. Your anxiety to cut the rest of us +out by any means seems to have unsettled your mind," shouted Gorse. "I +say let's drop this and stand to our original agreement that no man +speak till the end of the fortnight." +</P> + +<P> +"After that whole scheme has been torn to pieces like paper! There's +been nothing fair in this business from the start! We ought to have +kept Arrowood here and held together. And we ought to have got rid of +that Ames fellow—he did n't belong in this at all; and instead of +protecting ourselves against outsiders we have sat here like a lot of +fools while he's been making himself agreeable there in the +house—right there in the house!" +</P> + +<P> +Ormsby's voice rose to a disagreeable squeak as he closed with this +indictment of me. Hume fidgeted uneasily, and met my eye so warily +that I wondered whether he suspected that I knew of his breach of faith +with the other suitors. Much dallying with Scandinavian literature had +not lightened his heart, and there was nothing in Ibsen to which he +could refer his present plight. Shallenberger seemed to be the only +one of the group who had not lost his senses. He was in the farther +corner of the alcove, out of sight from the door, but I heard him +distinctly as he addressed the other suitors with rising anger. +</P> + +<P> +"We're acting like cads, and cads of the most contemptible sort! I +only agreed to this game to satisfy Ormsby. The idea of our sitting +here to draw cards to determine the order in which we shall offer +ourselves to the noblest and most beautiful woman in the world would be +coarse and vulgar if it were not so ridiculous! The men who had their +chance on the steamer or after we came here—and I don't pretend to +know who they are—ought in decency to have left the field. We seem to +have forgotten that we pretend to be gentlemen; or, far less +pardonable, that we pay court to a lady. Damn you all! I refuse to +have anything more to do with you, and if you try to interfere with my +affairs in any way I'll smash your heads collectively or separately as +you prefer!" +</P> + +<P> +My interest in this colloquy had led me further into the room, and +hearing my step they all turned and faced me. Dick had continued at my +side, but the black looks they sent our way were intended, I thought, +rather for me. Shallenberger, having taken himself out of the tangle, +leaned against the wall and filled his pipe with unconcern. My +appearance roused Ormsby to a fresh outburst. +</P> + +<P> +"You're responsible! If you had n't forced yourself upon the ladies at +Hopefield there would n't have been any of this trouble!" +</P> + +<P> +"You're only an impostor anyhow. You went to the house to fix a +chimney, and seem to think you 're engaged to spend the rest of your +natural life there!" protested Henderson, twisting the ends of his +moustache. +</P> + +<P> +Then they dropped me and assailed Dick. +</P> + +<P> +"We'd like to know what you expect to gain by dropping out! You got +cold feet mighty sudden!" bellowed Ormsby. +</P> + +<P> +Gorse and Henderson paid similar tributes to the apostate, whose +melancholy grin only deepened. Shallenberger was pacing the floor +slowly and puffing his pipe. Hume and Arbuthnot growled occasionally, +but shared, I thought, Shallenberger's changed feeling. +</P> + +<P> +My silence had been effective up to this time, but I was afraid to risk +it longer. Dick, I imagined, had kept close to me for fear of missing +any part of the altercation he knew my appearance would provoke. The +more vociferous suitors had howled themselves hoarse and glared at me +while I considered the situation. Henderson rallied for a final shot. +</P> + +<P> +"A good horsewhipping is what you deserve," he cried, leveling his +finger at me. +</P> + +<P> +"Gentlemen," I began, not without inward quaking, "you have spoken loud +naughty words to me, and in reply I must say that your vocal efforts +suggest only the melodies of the braying jackass, and that your +manners, to speak mildly, are susceptible of considerable improvement." +</P> + +<P> +"You leave this neighborhood within an hour!" boomed Ormsby; and in his +efforts to free himself from his chair it fell backward with a crash +that echoed through the long room. +</P> + +<P> +"Then summon the coroner by telephone, for I shall not be taken alive," +I answered quietly, trying to recall my youthful delight in Porthos, +Athos, and Aramis. "I should dislike to change the mild color-scheme +of this pleasant dining-room, but as sure as you lay hands on me, these +walls will become a playground for any corpuscles you carry in your +loathsome persons." +</P> + +<P> +"Come along, let us put him out," Henderson was saying in an aside to +Ormsby. +</P> + +<P> +"You were playing a game here for a stake not yours for the winning," I +continued. "Now I suggest that you shuffle the pack,—you three, who +are so full of valor,—shuffle the pack, I say, and draw for the jack +of clubs. Whoever is the fortunate man I shall take pleasure in +pitching through yonder very charming casement." +</P> + +<P> +"Agreed!" cried Henderson, and the three flung themselves into their +chairs. +</P> + +<P> +The alacrity of their consent had unnerved me for a moment. +D'Artagnan, I was sure, would have fought them all, but I consoled +myself, as the cards rattled on the bare table, with the reflection +that, considering the fact that I had never in my life laid violent +hands on a fellow-being, I was conducting myself with admirable +assurance. My weight has always hung well within one hundred and +thirty, and physicians have told me that I was incapable of taking on +flesh or muscle. Any one of these men could easily toss me through the +window I had indicated as a means of their own exit. +</P> + +<P> +Shallenberger caught my eye and indicated with a slight jerk of the +head that I had better run before it was too late. The painstaking +care with which Henderson had fallen upon the cards was disquieting, to +put it mildly. Dick nudged me in the ribs and offered to hold my coat. +</P> + +<P> +"It will not be necessary," I replied carelessly. "Tender your +services to the other gentlemen." +</P> + +<P> +I felt the cold sweat gathering on my brow. The three had begun to +draw cards, and I heard them slap the bits of pasteboard smartly upon +the table as they lifted them from the deck and, finding the jack of +clubs still undrawn, waited the next turn. I had no idea that a pack +of cards would dissolve so readily by the drawing process, and my +memory ceased trying to recall the adventures of D'Artagnan and hovered +with ominous persistence about the mad don of La Mancha. I cannot say +now whether I stood my ground out of sheer physical inability to run or +from an accession of courage due to the remembrance of my success in +detecting the Hopefield ghost. In any case I affected coolness as I +waited, even throwing out my arms to "shoot" my cuffs once or twice, +and yawning. +</P> + +<P> +"Come, gentlemen, hurry: let us not waste time here," I exclaimed +impatiently. +</P> + +<P> +"If Ormsby turns up the card you're a dead man," Dick was muttering +gloomily. +</P> + +<P> +"They're all alike to me," I replied loudly. "Mr. Ormsby is very +beautiful; I shall hope not to disfigure him permanently;" but as I +spoke my tongue was a wobbly dry clapper in my mouth. +</P> + +<P> +I was bending over now, watching the three men pick up the cards, and +once, when I misread the jack of spades for the jack of clubs, a +shudder passed over me. They were down to the last card, and Ormsby's +hand was on it. I recall that a group of steins on a shelf over +Henderson's head seemed to be dancing wildly. Then I looked at the +floor to steady myself, and hope leaped within me, for there, by +Ormsby's foot,—a large and heavy one,—lay an upturned card, the jack +of clubs, whose lone symbol magnified itself enormously in my amazed +eyes. +</P> + +<P> +At this moment, I became conscious that something had occurred to +distract the attention of the other men, who were staring at some one +who had entered noiselessly. +</P> + +<P> +"Gentlemen, you seem immensely interested in the turn of those cards. +I am glad to have arrived at the critical moment. Mr. Ormsby, will you +kindly lift the remaining card from the table?" +</P> + +<P> +Miss Octavia stood beside me. She was dressed in a dark brown +riding-habit; the feather in her fedora hat emphasized her usual brisk +air. She swung her riding-crop lightly in her hand, and bent over the +table with the deepest interest. +</P> + +<P> +Ormsby turned up the card. It was the ten of diamonds. +</P> + +<P> +"Gentlemen," I cried, pointing to the card, "what trick is this? Can +it be possible that you have been trifling with me in a fashion for +which men have died the world over by sword and pistol!" +</P> + +<P> +"Kindly explain, Arnold, the nature of this difficulty," Miss Octavia +commanded. +</P> + +<P> +"Simply this, Miss Hollister, if I must answer; I had offered to fight +these three gentlemen in order. It was agreed that the man who drew +the jack of clubs from the pack with which they had been playing should +be my first victim. They have shuffled their own cards and have drawn +the whole pack and there is no jack of clubs in the pack! The only +possible explanation is one to which I hesitate to apply the obvious +plain Saxon terms." +</P> + +<P> +"It dropped out, that's all! You don't dare pretend that we threw out +the jack to avoid drawing it!" protested Ormsby, though I saw from the +glances the trio exchanged that they suspected one another. Ormsby and +Gorse bent down to look for the missing card, but before they found it +I stepped forward and drove my fist upon the table with all the power I +could put into the blow. +</P> + +<P> +"Stop!" I cried. "I gave you every opportunity to stand up and take a +trouncing, but I need hardly say that after this contemptible knavery I +refuse to soil my hands on you!" +</P> + +<P> +"Do you insinuate"—began Henderson, jumping to his feet. +</P> + +<P> +"Gentlemen," said Miss Hollister, lifting the riding-crop, "it is +perfectly clear to me that Mr. Ames has gone as far as any gentleman +need go in protecting his honor. I do not offer myself as an +arbitrator here, but I advise my young friend that nothing further is +required of him in this deplorable affair." +</P> + +<P> +With one sweep of her crop she brushed to the floor the three piles of +cards that lay on the table as they had been stacked when drawn. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-348"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-348.jpg" ALT="With one sweep of her crop she brushed to the floor the three piles of cards." BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +With one sweep of her crop she brushed to the floor the three piles of cards. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"Arnold," she said, with indescribable dignity, "will you kindly attend +me to my horse?" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap19"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XIX +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE GHOST OF ADONIRAM CALDWELL +</H4> + +<P> +A stable-boy held Miss Octavia's horse at the inn-door. Her face, her +figure, her voice expressed outraged dignity as she tested the +saddle-girth. +</P> + +<P> +"You need never tell me what had happened to provoke your wrath, for +that is none of my affair; but I wish to say that your conduct and +bearing won my highest approval. They had undoubtedly hidden the jack +of clubs to avoid the drubbing you would have administered to the +unfortunate man who would have drawn that card if it had been in the +pack." +</P> + +<P> +"I was not in the slightest danger at any time, Miss Hollister," I +protested. "By one of those tricks of fate to which you and I are +becoming so accustomed, the card had fallen to the floor unnoticed. If +you had not arrived so opportunely the lost jack would have been +discovered, the cards reshuffled, and very likely Mr. Ormsby would have +been dusting the inn-floor with me at this very minute." +</P> + +<P> +"I refuse to believe any such thing," declared Miss Octavia, who had +mounted and continued speaking from the saddle. "Your perfect +confidence was admirable, and I shudder to think of the terrible +punishment you would have given them. I do not particularly dislike +Mr. Ormsby, though the possibility of Cecilia marrying him has troubled +me not a little as I have recalled the unromantic aspect of Utica as +seen from the car-windows; but it is much to your credit that you +defied them all and brought them to the fighting-point, and then, by a +stroke of cleverness it pleased me to witness, placed them +irretrievably in the wrong." +</P> + +<P> +If Miss Octavia wished to view my performances in this flattering light +it seemed unnecessary and unkind to object. Now that I was in the open +again with a whole skin I was not averse to the victor's crown; I would +even wear it tilted slightly over one ear. Birds have been killed by +shots that missed the real target; bunker sands are rich in gutta +percha and good intentions. I was a fraud, but a cheerful one. +</P> + +<P> +"It was only a pleasant incident of the day's work, Miss Hollister. +I'm going to engage a squire and take to the open road as soon as all +this is over." +</P> + +<P> +"As soon as all what is over!" she demanded, eyeing me keenly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, the work I've undertaken to do here. I flatter myself that I have +made some progress; but within twenty-four hours I dare say that we +shall have seen the end." +</P> + +<P> +"Your words are not wholly luminous, Arnold." +</P> + +<P> +"It is much better that it should be so. You have trusted me so far, +and I have no intention of failing you now. If I say that the crisis +is near at hand in a certain matter that interests you greatly, you +will understand that I am not striking ignorantly in the dark." +</P> + +<P> +"If you know what I suspect you know, Arnold Ames, you are even +shrewder than I thought you, and you had already taken a high place in +my regard. The curtains of the windows just behind you have shown +considerable agitation since we have been speaking, not due, I think, +to the wind, as there is no air stirring. Those gentlemen you have +just vanquished are timidly watching you. Your daring and prowess have +greatly alarmed them. You may be sure they will think twice before +provoking your wrath again." +</P> + +<P> +"I devoutly hope they will," I replied, glancing carelessly over my +shoulder, and catching a glimpse of Henderson as he drew hastily out of +sight. "But will you tell me just how you came to visit the inn at +this particular hour?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing could be simpler. I had luncheon at the house of a friend on +whom I called. Cecilia had left me to continue her ride alone, and on +my way home I thought I would ride by the Prescott Arms to see how the +guests were faring. You see,"—she paused and gave a twitch to her hat +to prolong my suspense,—"you see, I own the Prescott Arms!" +</P> + +<P> +With this she rode away, and not caring to risk a further meeting with +the angry suitors from whom Miss Octavia had rescued me by so narrow a +margin, I set off across the fields toward Hopefield. From the stile I +saw Miss Octavia in the highway half a mile distant, sending her horse +along at a spirited canter. I reached the house without further +adventures, was served with a cold luncheon in my room, and by the time +I had changed my clothes Miss Octavia sent me word that Pepperton had +arrived. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Octavia and the architect were conversing earnestly when I reached +the library; and from the abruptness with which they ceased on my +entrance I imagined that I had been the subject of their talk. +Pepperton is not only one of the finest architects America has +produced, but one of the jolliest of fellows. He grasped my hand +cordially and pointed to the fireplace. +</P> + +<P> +"So you've at last found one of my jobs to overhaul, have you! You +must n't let this get out on me, old man; it would shatter my +reputation!" +</P> + +<P> +"Please observe that the flue is drawing splendidly now," I answered. +"A ghost had been strolling up and down the chimney, but now that I +have found his lair he will not trouble Miss Hollister's fireplaces +again." +</P> + +<P> +"I have waited for your arrival, Mr. Pepperton, that we might have the +benefit of your knowledge of the house in following the trail of this +ghost which Arnold has discovered. But we must give Arnold credit for +effecting the discovery alone and unaided. I destroyed the plans I +obtained from your office so that Arnold might be fully tested as to +his capacity for managing the most difficult situations." +</P> + +<P> +When Miss Octavia first referred to me as Arnold, Pepperton raised his +brows a trifle; the second time he glanced at me laughingly. He seemed +greatly amused by Miss Octavia's seriousness, but her amiable attitude +toward me clearly puzzled him. +</P> + +<P> +"It takes a good man to uncover a thing I try to hide. I said nothing +to you, Miss Hollister, about the retention within the walls of this +house of parts of an old one that formerly occupied the site, for the +reason that I thought you might refuse to buy the estate. The +gentleman for whom I built Hopefield was superstitious, as many men of +advanced years are, as to the building of a new house, and as the site +he chose is one of the finest in the county he compelled me to +construct this house—which is the most satisfactory I have built—in +such manner enough of the old should be kept intact to soothe his +superstitious soul with the idea that he had merely altered an old +house, not built a new one. As it is the architect's business to yield +to such caprices I obeyed him strictly. So there are two rooms of an +old farmhouse hidden under the east wing, and it amused me, once I had +got into it, to preserve part of the old stairway, and connect the +retained chambers with the upper hall of this house. I had to patch +the original stair, which was only one flight, with discarded lumber +from the old house, but I flatter myself that I managed it neatly. I +even saved the old nails to avert the wrath of the evil spirits. When +the umbrella and dyspepsia-cure man died,—for he did die, as you +know,—I believed the secret had died with him, as he was very +sensitive about his superstitions. Most of the laborers on that part +of the job were brought from a long distance, and I supposed they never +really knew just what we were doing. I might have known, though, that +if a fellow as clever as Ames got to pecking at the house the trick +would be discovered. But the chimney, old man,—what on earth was the +matter with it?" +</P> + +<P> +"It will never happen again, and I promised the ghost never to tell how +it was done." +</P> + +<P> +"You were quite right in doing that, Arnold,—a ghost's secrets should +be sacred; but let us now proceed to the hidden chambers," said Miss +Hollister, rising without further ado. +</P> + +<P> +She summoned Cecilia, to whom we explained matters briefly, and at +Pepperton's suggestion the four of us went directly to the fourth +floor, so that Miss Octavia might see the whole contrivance in the most +effective manner possible. +</P> + +<P> +My awkward pen falters in the attempt to convey any idea of Miss +Octavia's delight in Pepperton's revelation; she kept repeating her +admiration of his genius, and her praise of my cleverness, which, to +protect Hezekiah, I was forced to accept meekly. When in broad +daylight Pepperton found and pressed the spring in the upper hall and +the hidden door opened, with a slowness that indicated a realization of +its own dramatic value, Miss Octavia cried out gleefully, like a child +that witnesses the manipulation of a new and wonderful toy. +</P> + +<P> +"To think, Cecilia, that I should never have known of this if that +chimney had not smoked!"—a remark that caused Pepperton to glance at +me curiously. He knew as well as I did that with ordinary care every +flue in that house would have drawn splendidly. "Beyond any question," +Miss Octavia kept asserting, "beneath the chambers of the old house +down there we shall find the bones of that British soldier who perished +here; or it is even possible that a chest of hidden treasure is +concealed beneath the floor. What do you yourself suspect, Mr. +Pepperton?" +</P> + +<P> +We were lighting candles preparatory to stepping down into the dark +stairway, and Pepperton was plainly hard put to keep from laughing. +</P> + +<P> +"I assure you, Miss Hollister, that I have told you all I know about +the rooms down there. I 'm not very strong in the ghost-faith; and our +friend the umbrella-man never dreamed of such a thing, I assure you, +not even after he had satisfied his fierce craving for pie." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Octavia followed Pepperton slowly, pausing frequently to hold her +candle close to the stair-walls, whose rough surfaces confirmed all +that Pepperton had said of the preservation of the old timbers. I had +brought a handful of candles, and when we had reached the dark rooms +beneath, I lighted these and set them up in the black corners of the +old rooms, in which, Miss Octavia remarked, not even the wall paper had +been disturbed. The exit into the coal-cellar, and concealed openings +left for ventilation which had escaped me before, were now pointed out +by the architect, who kept laughing at the huge joke of it all. +</P> + +<P> +Cecilia murmured her surprise repeatedly as we continued the +examination; nothing quite like this had ever happened in the world +before, but even as we walked through those hidden rooms my thoughts +reverted to the crisis so near at hand in her affairs. I had pledged +myself to her service, but I saw no way yet of assuring the proper +sequence of proposals. The ultimate seventh must be Wiggins; but how +could I manage the penultimate sixth! Cecilia's own apparent freedom +from care on this tour of inspection deepened my sense of +responsibility to all concerned. Dick might by now have persuaded some +one of the others at the inn to offer himself, thus closing the gap, +and I had determined that the Westerner should not outwit me. It was +some consolation to know that while Cecilia was in these lost rooms in +my company, she was safe from Dick's machinations. +</P> + +<P> +My thoughts were, however, given a new direction by Miss Octavia. She +had been scrutinizing the floor closely, asking us all to bring our +candles to bear upon it, that she might search thoroughly for any signs +of a trapdoor beneath which the bones of the British soldier might +repose. +</P> + +<P> +"You can't tell me," she averred in her own peculiar vein, "that a +house as old as this has been preserved merely to divert calamity from +a superstitious gentleman engaged in the manufacture of ribless +umbrellas and a dyspepsia cure." +</P> + +<P> +Miss Octavia Hollister was a woman to be humored; we all knew this; but +I realized with a pang that she was about to be disappointed. I had +expected her to forget the British soldier in the perfectly tangible +joy of secret springs and ghostly chambers; and if I had foreseen her +persistence in clinging to the tradition of the ill-fated Briton I +should have taken the trouble to hide a few bones under the flooring. +Miss Octavia had brought a stick from the coal-room, and was thumping +the floor with it even while Pepperton tried to discourage her further +investigations. We were all ranged about her with our candles, and +these, with the others I had thrust into the corners, lighted the room +well. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid you've seen the whole of it, Miss Hollister," said +Pepperton. "The old house was built after the Revolution, I judge, but +your British soldier was probably left hanging to a tree and never +buried at all." +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Pepperton," she replied, holding the candle so close to the +architect that he blinked, "it would be far from me to question your +knowledge of history, but I should not be at all surprised if the +builder of this old house had fought on the seas with John Paul Jones, +and had buried beneath these walls the very sea-chest that had been his +companion on many eventful voyages." +</P> + +<P> +Pepperton gasped at the absurdity of this, and then suppressed his +mirth with difficulty. Cecilia faintly expostulated; but I knew Miss +Octavia would not be dissuaded, and I thought it as well to facilitate +her search and be done with it. A sailor with rings in his ears and a +cutlass dangling at his side might have come home from the wars and +established himself on a farm in Westchester County and even buried his +sea-chest under the floor of his house, but in all likelihood he never +had. It was not my office, however, to advise Miss Octavia Hollister +in such matters. Pepperton had changed his tune and seemed anxious to +follow my lead. To him she was an eccentric old woman, whose wealth +alone gained her indulgence in such preposterous obsessions as this; +but my own feelings were those of regret that she must so quickly be +disillusioned. To me she had become an incarnation of the play-spirit +that never grows old, and there may have risen in me an honest belief +that what this unusual woman sought she would somehow find. Once or +twice when the uneven worn flooring had boomed hollowly under her stick +I had knelt promptly to examine the planks, and had thus disposed of +several false alarms. Pepperton feigned interest for a time, but was +becoming bored. Cecilia studied the quaint pattern of the wall paper, +which she said ought to be reproduced, as nothing in contemporaneous +designs equaled it. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Octavia had been over the floors of the two rooms twice, and was +about to desist. Her less frequent appeals to the rest of us for +confirmation of some suspected change in the responses to her thumping +indicated disappointment. She made her last stand in the corner of the +smaller room, and as we all stood holding our lights, we were conscious +that the dull monotonous thump suddenly changed its tone. We all +noticed it at the same instant, and exchanged glances of surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you hear that, gentlemen?" +</P> + +<P> +She subdued her gratification in the rebuking glance she gave us. Calm +and unhurried, she rested a moment on her stick, with the candle's soft +glow about her, a smile ineffably sweet on her face. +</P> + +<P> +"The timbers may have rotted away underneath. We did n't raise these +floors," said Pepperton; but we both dropped to our knees and brought +all the candle-light to bear upon the flooring. Dust and mortar, +shaken loose in the destruction of the house, filled the cracks. +Pepperton, deeply absorbed, continued to sound the corner with his +knuckles. +</P> + +<P> +"It really looks as though these boards had been cut for some purpose," +he said, whipping out his knife. +</P> + +<P> +I ran to the kindling-room and found a hatchet, and when I returned he +had dug the dirt out of the edges of the floor-planks. Silence held us +all as I set to prying up the boards. +</P> + +<P> +"I beg of you to exercise the greatest care, gentlemen. If bones are +interred here we must do them no sacrilege," warned Miss Octavia. +</P> + +<P> +By this time we all, I think, began to believe that the flooring might +really have been cut in this corner of the old room to permit the +hiding of something. The room had grown hot, and Cecilia opened the +cellar-windows outside to admit air. The old planks clung stubbornly +their joists, but after I had loosened one, the others came up quickly +and the smell of dry earth filled the room. Pepperton had, at Miss +Octavia's direction, brought a chisel and crowbar from the tool-room in +the cellar, and he stood ready with these when I tore up the last +board, disclosing an oblong space about five feet long and slightly +over three feet wide. It was possible that this was the whole story, +but Pepperton began driving the bar vigorously into the close-packed +soil. As he loosened the earth I scooped it out, and we soon had +penetrated about six inches beneath the surface. +</P> + +<P> +We were all excited now. The edge of the bar struck repeatedly against +something that resisted sharply. It might have been a root, but when +Pepperton shifted the point of attack the same booming sound answered +to the prodding. Pepperton now thought it might be only an empty cask +or a box of no interest whatever; but Miss Octavia, hovering close with +a candle, encouraged us to go on, and was fertile in suggestions as to +the most expeditious manner of resurrecting whatever might be buried +there. We were pretty well satisfied from the soundings that the +hidden object was somewhat shorter and narrower than the hole itself. +</P> + +<P> +"Quite naturally so," observed Miss Octavia, "for a man who buries a +treasure has to allow himself room for getting at it." +</P> + +<P> +We worked on silently, Pepperton loosening the soil with the bar while +I shoveled it out. In half an hour we had revealed a long flat wooden +surface, which to our anxious imaginations was the lid of some sort of +box. +</P> + +<P> +"It's sound red cedar," pronounced Pepperton, examining the wood where +the tools had splintered it. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course it's cedar," replied Miss Octavia, bending down to it. "I +knew it would be cedar. It always is!" +</P> + +<P> +We paused to laugh at her confident tone, and Cecilia suggested that as +there was still a good deal to do before we could free the box, we +should send for some of the servants to complete the work. +</P> + +<P> +"I would n't take a thousand dollars for my chance at this," Pepperton +answered; and we fell to again. +</P> + +<P> +It must have been nearly six o'clock when we dragged out into that +candle-lighted chamber a stout, well-fashioned box. The earth clung to +its sides jealously, and it was bound with strips of brass that shone +brightly where the scraping of our tools had burnished it. We pried +off the heavy lock with a good deal of difficulty, and when it was free +Miss Octavia asserted her right to the treasure-trove with much +calmness. +</P> + +<P> +"I should never forgive myself if I allowed this opportunity to pass; +you must permit me to have the first look." +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly, Miss Hollister; if it had n't been for you this chest would +have remained hidden to the end of all time," Pepperton replied. +</P> + +<P> +We gathered close about her as she knelt beside the box. My hand shook +as I held my candle, and I think Miss Octavia was the only one in the +room who showed no nervousness. Cecilia sighed deeply several times, +and Pepperton mopped his face with his handkerchief. The lid did not +yield as readily as we had expected, and it was necessary to resort to +the hatchet and chisel again; but we were careful that it should be +Miss Octavia's hand that finally raised the lid. +</P> + +<P> +We all exclaimed in various keys as the light fell upon the open chest. +The musty odor of old garments greeted us at once. The box was well +filled, and its contents were neatly arranged. Miss Octavia first +lifted out the remnants of a military uniform that lay on top. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-366"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-366.jpg" ALT="Miss Octavia first lifted out the remnants of a military uniform that lay on top." BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +Miss Octavia first lifted out the remnants <BR> +of a military uniform that lay on top. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +"It's his ragged regimentals!" cried Cecilia, as we unfolded an +officer's coat of blue and buff, sadly decrepit and faded; "and he was +not a British soldier at all, but an American patriot." +</P> + +<P> +Time and service had dealt even more harshly with an American flag on +which the thirteen white stars floated dimly on the dull blue field. +It had been bound tightly about a packet of papers which Miss Octavia +asked Pepperton to examine. +</P> + +<P> +"These are commissions appointing a certain Adoniram Caldwell to +various positions in the Continental Army. Adoniram had the right +stuff in him; here he's discharged as a private to become an ensign; +rose from ensign to colonel, and seems to have been in most of the big +doings. 'For gallantry in the recent engagement at Stony Point, on +recommendation of General Anthony Wayne'—by Jove, that does rather +carry you back!" +</P> + +<P> +Half a dozen of these documents traced Adoniram Caldwell's career to +the end of the Revolution and his retirement from the military service +with the rank of colonel. A sealed letter attached to these +commissions next held our attention. The ends were dovetailed in the +old style before the day of envelopes, and evidently care had been +taken in folding and sealing it. The superscription, in a round bold +hand, without flourishes, read: "To Whom It May Concern." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose it concerns us as much as anybody," remarked Miss Octavia. +"What do you say, gentlemen; shall we open it?" +</P> + +<P> +We all demanded breathlessly that she break the seal, and we were soon +bending over her with our lights. The ink had blurred and in spots +rust had obliterated the writing:— +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"I, Roger Hartley Wiggins, sometime known as Adoniram Caldwell"— +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"Hartley Wiggins!" we gasped; and I felt Cecilia's hand clasp my arm. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Octavia continued reading, and as she was obliged to pause often +and refer illegible lines to the rest of us, I have copied the +following from the letter itself, with only slight changes of +punctuation and spelling. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"I, Roger Hartley Wiggins, sometime known as Adoniram Caldwell, having +now resumed my proper name, and being about to marry, and having begun +the construction of a habitation for myself wherein to end my days, +truthfully set forth these matters: +</P> + +<P> +"My father, Hiram Wiggins of Rhode Island, having supported the +royalist cause in our late war for Independence, and angered by my +friendliness to the patriots, and he, with ... brothers and sister +having returned to England after the evacuation of Boston, I joined the +Continental troops under General Putnam on Long Island, in July, 1776, +serving in various commands thereafter, to the best of my ability, to +the end.... My father has now returned to Rhode Island, and has, I +learn, been making inquiries touching my whereabouts and condition, so +that I have every hope that we may become reconciled. Yet as my +services to the Country were against his wishes and caused so much +harshness and heartache, and being now come into a part of the country +where I am unknown, I am decided to resume my rightful name, that my +wife and children may bear it and in the hope that I may myself yet add +to it some honor.... +</P> + +<P> +"Nor shall my wife or any children that may be born to me, know from me +... (<I>badly blurred</I>.) Yet not caring to destroy my sword, which I +bore with some credit, nor these testimonials of respect and confidence +I received as Adoniram Caldwell at various times and from various +personages of renown, both civilians and in the military service, I +place them under my house now building, where I hope in God's care to +end my days in peace. I would in like case make like choice again." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Ten lines following this were wholly illegible, but just before the +date (June 17, 1789), and the signature, which was written large, was +this:— +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"God preserve these American states that they endure in unity and +concord forever!" +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +We had all been moved by the reading of this long-lost letter, and Miss +Octavia's voice had faltered several times. As I turned to Cecilia +once or twice during the recital of the dead patriot's message, I saw +tears brimming her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Wiggins once told me that his great-grandfather had lived +somewhere in Westchester County, but I fancy he had no idea that +Hopefield was the identical spot," remarked Miss Octavia. "It seems +incredible, and yet I dare say the hand of fate is in it." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it's so wonderful; so beyond belief!" cried Cecilia, reverently +folding the letter, which, I observed, she retained in her own hands. +</P> + +<P> +"It's wonderful," added Miss Octavia promptly, taking the sword, which +Pepperton had with difficulty drawn from its battered scabbard, "that +even a discerning woman like me could have been so mistaken. I recall +with humility that last Fourth of July, at Berlin, I reprimanded Mr. +Wiggins severely because his family had not been represented in the war +for American Independence. By the irony of circumstances it becomes my +duty to present to him the very sword that his admirable +great-grandfather bore in that momentous struggle. I shall, with his +permission, place a bronze tablet on the outer wall of this house to +preserve the patriot's memory." +</P> + +<P> +Several copies of New York newspapers, half a dozen French gold coins, +the miniature of a woman's face, which we assumed to be that of Roger +Wiggins's mother or sister, were briefly examined; then by Miss +Octavia's orders we carefully returned everything to the chest. +Several packets of letters we did not open. +</P> + +<P> +"Arnold," she said when we had closed the chest, "will you and Mr. +Pepperton kindly carry that box to my room? No servant's hand shall +touch it; and I shall myself give it to Mr. Wiggins at the earliest +opportunity." +</P> + +<P> +We had lost track of time in those hidden rooms, preserved by the whim +of one man that the secret of another might be discovered, and found +with surprise, after the chest had been carried to Miss Octavia's +apartments, that it was after seven o'clock. We had been in the hidden +rooms for more than three hours. +</P> + +<P> +"We shall have much to talk about to-night, and I fancy we are all a +good deal shaken. It's not often we receive a letter from a dead man, +so we shall admit no callers to-night unless, indeed, Mr. Wiggins +should chance to come," announced Miss Octavia. "The next time Hartley +Wiggins visits this house he shall come as a conquering hero." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope so," replied Cecilia brokenly. +</P> + +<P> +We were still at dinner when the cards of Dick and the other suitors I +had last seen at the Prescott Arms were brought in; but Wiggins made no +sign, and I wondered. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap20"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +XX +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +HEZEKIAH PARTITIONS THE KINGDOM +</H4> + +<P> +The man who looked after my needs handed me a note the next morning +which added fresh hazards to Cecilia's already perilous plight. +</P> + +<P> +"Left with the gardener before six o'clock by a boy from the village. +Said it was most confidential, sir." +</P> + +<P> +I waited till he had left the room before opening it. A square white +envelope addressed to Arnold Ames, Esq., Hopefield Manor, told me +nothing, and the handwriting was inscrutable. It slanted slightly +upward; the small letters were half-printed and quaintly shaded. If a +woman's, she had scorned the rail-fence models of the boarding-schools; +if a man's—but I knew its gender well enough! The white note sheet +within was unadorned, and the same pen had traced compactly, within the +widest possible margins, the following:— +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +GOOSEBERRY BUNGALOW,<BR> + Before Breakfast.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +DEAR CHIMNEYS:—Pep stopped here yesterday to see B.H. He and C. old +pals. Watch him. Where's Wig? H.H. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The initials were superfluous, and yet the sight of them pleased me +mightily. In her semi-printing she curved the pillars of the H's like +parentheses, so that they bore an amusing resemblance to four men +striding forward against a storm. The report of a chief of scouts +smuggled through the enemy's lines could not have improved on her +billet for succinctness, and the information conveyed was startling +enough. We had been dealing with a company of suitors outside the +barricade; now came warning of the presence of a strange knight within +the gates who greatly multiplied the perils of the situation. The +compact between the suitors at the inn was a thing of the past, and I +now expected them to exercise all the ingenuity of which desperate +lovers are capable in pressing their claims. The fact that both +Wiggins and Pepperton were old friends of mine did not make my task +easier. I not only felt it incumbent on me to prevent Dick, the holder +of the clue, from taking advantage of it, but knowing Cecilia's own +attitude of mind and heart toward Wiggins I wished to save Pepperton +the pain of rejection if it could be done. +</P> + +<P> +But what did Hezekiah mean by the question with which she ended her +note? If Wiggins, smarting under Cecilia's treatment of him the day +before, had quit the field, here was a pretty how-d 'ye-do f Miss +Octavia's refusal to countenance telephones made it necessary for me to +leave Hopefield to learn what had become of Wiggins, and I realized +that I must act promptly if I saved the day for him. His conduct first +and last had been spiritless, and I was out of patience with him. It +seemed impossible to formulate any plan amidst these multiplying +uncertainties. If Wiggins had decamped, Dick knew it and would lay his +plans accordingly. I felt that it was base ingratitude on Wiggins's +part to ask me to watch his interests while he went roaming +indifferently over the country. One or two consoling reflections +remained, however: Dick believed me to be a suitor for Cecilia's hand, +and this doubtless caused him considerable uneasiness; and he did not +know that Pepperton, whose acquaintance with Cecilia antedated the +European flight, had to be reckoned with. I wished Pepperton had kept +out of it. +</P> + +<P> +Breakfast that morning was interminably long. Miss Octavia was never +more thoroughly amusing, never more drolly inadvertent. She attacked +Pepperton for all the evils in American architecture, and in particular +took him to task for some house he had built at Newport which she +pronounced the most hideous pile of marble on American soil. From her +packet of newspaper-cuttings she drew a letter her brother Bassford had +written to the "Sun,"—the writing of letters to newspapers was, it +seemed, one of his weaknesses,—protesting against the quality of the +music ground from the New York hurdy-gurdies. The selections were +execrable; the fierce tempo at which the instruments were driven had +caused an alarming increase in insanity, in proof of which he adduced +statistics. He demanded municipal censorship, and volunteered to sit +on the proposed commission of critics without pay. +</P> + +<P> +"That is just like brother Bassford! When I begin speaking to him +again I shall point out the error of his ways. I always miss the +hurdy-gurdies when I 'm in the country, and I believe I shall buy one +and have it play me to sleep at night. The faster the tempo the +sweeter the slumber. I should certainly do so," she concluded, with +that indefinable smile that always left one wondering, "if it were not +that my new laundress is a graduate of the Sandusky-Ottumwa +Conservatory of Music, and I fear the toreador's song on wheels might +be painful to one of her taste and temperament." +</P> + +<P> +When we left the table at about half-past ten Miss Octavia insisted +that we must visit the kennels. A friend had just sent her a fine +Airedale, and she wished to make sure the kennel-master was treating +the dog properly. Later we were all to ride. +</P> + +<P> +I made haste to excuse myself, saying that personal matters required +attention. +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly, Arnold, you shall do as you like. Mr. Pepperton is a +difficult bird to catch, so we hope for you at luncheon, and of course +we expect you for dinner." +</P> + +<P> +Pepperton looked at me inquiringly. I judged that he had known Miss +Octavia a good many years; the tone of their intercourse was intimate; +and yet he plainly was at a loss to understand just how I came to be so +thoroughly established in her good graces. I confess that as I glance +back over these pages it looks odd to me! +</P> + +<P> +As I paced the hall waiting for a horse to be saddled, Pepperton led me +out on the terrace above the garden. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm bursting with a great secret, old man. I'm going to be married." +</P> + +<P> +"What!" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going to be married." +</P> + +<P> +I grasped a chair to support myself. This was almost too much. Could +it be possible that Hezekiah had miscalculated the list of rejections +in the silver-bound book, or that Cecilia herself had been deceived? +Pepperton misread my agitation, and with a hearty laugh clapped me on +the shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I'm not intruding on your preserves, old man! Cecilia is the +second finest girl in the world, that's all. I'm engaged to Miss +Gaylord, of Stockbridge. I 'm telling a few old friends, in advance of +the formal announcement to be made next week at a dance the Gaylords +are giving." +</P> + +<P> +I crushed his hand in both my own, and seeing that he misconstrued the +fervor of my emotion I hastened to set myself right. +</P> + +<P> +"You're a lucky dog as usual, Pep. But you don't understand about +Cecilia Hollister. It's not I; I 'm not in the running at all; but +Hartley Wiggins is! I'm here trying to help him score." +</P> + +<P> +"What's this? You're here to represent Wiggy?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, he did n't exactly send me here, but when I came I found that +Wiggy was n't playing the game with quite the necessary zipology. +There's more required than appears,—a little of the dash and snap of +the old adventures,—the ready tongue, the eager, thirsty sword!" +</P> + +<P> +Pepperton pursed his lips and looked me over carefully with a twinkle +in his eye. +</P> + +<P> +"You are contributing those elements! You are octaviaized, is that +it?" Pepperton laughed until the tears came. +</P> + +<P> +"I prefer hollisterized as the broader term. Brother Bassford has it +too, and there's always Hezekiah!" +</P> + +<P> +"Ah! Hezekiah the unpredictable! I knew there was a skirt fluttering +somewhere. I saw her yesterday; stopped to see Bassford, who's a good +old chap. Hezekiah of the teasing eyes was whitewashing the +chicken-coop, and Michael Angelo could n't have done it better." +</P> + +<P> +"Pep," I said, lowering my voice, "if you love me, keep close to +Cecilia all day. You're an engaged man and in practice. Give an +imitation of devotion. Keep her out of doors; keep male human beings +away from her. Don't fail me in this. I 've got to pull off the +greatest coup of my life to-day. There's a band of outlaws hanging +round here who will propose to Cecilia the first chance they get—and +they must NOT. Wig 's got to speak before night or lose out forever. +No; not a word of explanation; you've got to take my word for it." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll be the goat; go ahead, but build a fire under Wiggins; I can't +stay here forever." +</P> + +<P> +Pepperton's engagement smoothed out one wrinkle, and I felt sure that I +could trust him as an ally. The groom was holding my horse in the +porte-cochère, and I mounted and rode away to the Prescott Arms. +</P> + +<P> +I found Ormsby, Shallenberger, Arbuthnot, Henderson, Hume, and Gorse +glumly sitting in a semicircle before the hall fireplace. Deepest +gloom pervaded the inn. I have rarely seen melancholy so darkly +stamped upon the human countenance. They turned indifferently and +glared as they recognized me. Shallenberger alone rose and greeted me. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope there is no bad news," he said chokingly. +</P> + +<P> +"Bad news?" +</P> + +<P> +"I mean Miss Hollister—Miss Cecilia. We were all deeply grieved last +night to hear of her sudden illness; there's always something so +terrible in the very name of diphtheria." +</P> + +<P> +My wits had been so sharpened by my late adventures that I readily +accounted for these false tidings. Dick was absent; Dick alone would +have been equal to this diabolical plot for keeping his rival suitors +away from Hopefield. The despair in those faces taxed my gravity +severely. +</P> + +<P> +"It is extremely sad, but the first diagnosis was erroneous," I +answered. "I think it more likely to prove to be chicken-pox when the +truth is known." +</P> + +<P> +"Not diphtheria?" +</P> + +<P> +"No immediate danger of diphtheria, I assure you," I replied; "though +of course, with winter coming on and all that, one must be prepared for +the worst." +</P> + +<P> +While he repeated this to the others, I sought the clerk, who promptly +handed me a note which Wiggins had left late the previous afternoon, to +be delivered in case I called. He had gone to spend a day or two with +Orton, the playwright, who was at his country house, in the hills +beyond Mt. Kisco, rehearsing a new piece, in which a friend of +Hartley's was to star. I gained the telephone-booth in one jump, and +in five minutes I was bawling wildly into Orton's ear. I had known him +well in the Hare and Tortoise, and he answered my demand for Wiggins +with the heart-breaking news that Hartley had ridden off with some +other guests in the house—Orton did n't know where. +</P> + +<P> +"I threw them out; I've got to rewrite my third act; I don't care +whether they ever come back," boomed Orton's voice. +</P> + +<P> +"If you don't send Wiggins back to me at Hopefield as fast as he can +get there, my third act is ruined." +</P> + +<P> +"What?" +</P> + +<P> +"Tell Wiggins to come back on the run; tell him the world's coming to +an end any minute." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll be glad to get rid of him," snapped Orton, in the harried tone of +a man whose third act has wilted in rehearsal. +</P> + +<P> +As I came perspiring out of the telephone-booth I found the suitors +engaged in eager but subdued debate by the hearth. They could hardly +have heard my bleatings over the telephone, but they were greatly +concerned about something. Shallenberger, who was apparently the only +one willing to approach me, followed me to the veranda. +</P> + +<P> +"Those fellows in there don't understand this. Dick told us all last +night, after we had called at the house and been refused admittance, +that Miss Cecilia was ill with diphtheria. I remember that it was Dick +who rang the bell and gave our cards to the footman. It was quite +singular, you know, our being turned away, unless something had been +wrong." +</P> + +<P> +I bowed gravely. They had been turned away for the very simple reason +that, after unearthing Adoniram Caldwell's effects in the secret rooms +of her house, Miss Octavia had not cared to be troubled with suitors. +The haughty Nebraskan had drawn upon his imagination for the rest. +</P> + +<P> +"And I understood you to say a moment ago that Miss Hollister's malady +is not diphtheria, but chicken-pox?" Shallenberger persisted with +almost laughable trepidation. "These gentlemen, I regret to say, go so +far as to doubt your word." +</P> + +<P> +"That, Mr. Shallenberger, is their privilege. But it seems to me that +when I merely tried to mitigate the terrible news imparted by Dick, you +are rank ingrates for questioning my far less doubtful story. Anything +between you gentlemen and Mr. Dick is, of course, none of my affair, +for whether considered as a set, group or bunch I am done with the +whole lot of you. Farewell!" +</P> + +<P> +I decided as I rode away that nothing was to be gained by going in +search of Wiggins. Orton had purposely made his house difficult of +access, and the roads in that neighborhood are many and devious. Orton +had banished his guests that he might tinker his play in peace, and +knowing his temper, I was sure that Wiggins and the rest of them would +keep out of his way till the pangs of hunger drove them back. +</P> + +<P> +I had ridden half a mile toward Hopefield, when I espied a woman riding +rapidly toward me, and as she drew nearer I identified her as Hezekiah, +mounted on a horse I recognized as one of the best in Miss Octavia's +stables. Hezekiah rode astride, as a woman should, her bicycle skirt +serving well as a habit. She rode as a boy rides who loves freedom and +quickened pulses and the rush of wind across his face. She was +hatless, for which the sun and I were both grateful. The big bow at +the back of her head turned the dial back to sixteen. +</P> + +<A NAME="img-383"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-383.jpg" ALT="I espied a woman riding rapidly toward me." BORDER="2"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center"> +I espied a woman riding rapidly toward me. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<P> +She drew rein and fished what seemed to be salted almonds from her +sweater pocket. She filliped one of these into the air, and caught it +in her mouth with a lazy toss of the head that showed the firm contour +of her lovely throat. I had never seen her more self-possessed. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you care much for this horse?" she asked, carelessly. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a good horse; I fancy Miss Octavia thinks so herself. There are +places, Hezekiah, where they hang people for horse-stealing." +</P> + +<P> +"Thought I might need one to-day, so I borrowed him,—through the back +way to the old red barn. The coachman is an ancient chum, and Aunt +Octavia would never mind even if she knew. And she will know all +right! Anyhow, my rear tire had been patched once too often, and there +is a satisfaction in a horse! Where's our sensitive and impressionable +Wiggy? Saw him riding over toward Kisco yesterday P.M. with chin on +his chest,—dreadful riding form." +</P> + +<P> +"Wiggins is at Orton's,—the playwright's, you know. I've telephoned +him to hustle back, but he's out of our reach somewhere. I could n't +speak to him direct; had to leave a message for him." +</P> + +<P> +"Just like Wiggy to die on the last lap. What did you make out of +brother Pepperton?" +</P> + +<P> +"Your note scared me,—thanks so much for your note,—but he's all +right. Engaged to another girl." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah," she sighed, "it's comforting that Cecilia could n't keep them all +going all the time." +</P> + +<P> +We rode along together, our horses in a walk, and I told her everything +I knew of the condition of affairs, including a true account of my +experiences at the inn the day before and of the finding of the old +chest belonging to Wiggins's great-grandfather,—her brown eyes opened +wide at this,—concluding with the diphtheria stratagem and Dick's +menace to Cecilia's happiness. +</P> + +<P> +"He's really a bright little boy. Coming home on the steamer he gave +me a post-graduate course in pragmatism that I've found helpful in +keeping house for papa. It's too bad we have to lay a trap for Mr. +Dick." +</P> + +<P> +"Is it? Just how are we to manage that, Hezekiah?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, that will be easy enough. He's pretty desperate, and since the +compact between the suitors has gone to pieces he knows he will have to +show his hand pretty soon. He thinks you are wild about Cecilia. He +lays great stress on his thinking powers, and he probably argues that +you are bound to pop pretty soon. It's just as well he thinks so, but +we must finish this up to-day; I'll be a nervous wreck if we don't +close the books to-night. There's your friend Dick now." +</P> + +<P> +She indicated a high point in the main road, where it crossed the ridge +from which she had shown me—it seemed, oh, very long ago!—the +procession of suitors crossing the stile. Dick, mounted, was gazing +off across the fields toward Hopefield. Man and horse were so distant +as to create the illusion of an equestrian statue on a high pedestal. +</P> + +<P> +"Napoleon before Waterloo," I suggested. +</P> + +<P> +"He does look like Napoleon, doesn't he?" she laughed. "He's a bit +fussed to-day. He knows that Wiggy 's not at the inn, and that you are +up to something, and to little Mr. Dick the architect probably looks +like one of those mysterious knights you read about, who suddenly +appears at the tournament all canned in an ice-cream freezer, with a +tin pail over his head. Mr. Pepperton's presence no doubt worries him, +as I don't think they ever met. Cecilia and Mr. Pepperton are +riding—I dodged them just before I struck you, walking their horses in +the most loverlike fashion in a lane over yonder; but if Mr. Pepperton +is really engaged it's all right, though if I were the other girl I +think I'd be anxious." +</P> + +<P> +"Pep's playing the game, that's all. What are you going to do now?" +</P> + +<P> +She glanced at the sun; I fancy that it was with such a scanning of the +heavens that her sisters a thousand years before had noted the time. +</P> + +<P> +"This is my pie-day. There's undoubtedly a gooseberry-pie waiting for +me at the bungalow, and papa will expect me for luncheon. I 'd ask you +to come too, only you 'll have all you can do to keep Mr. Dick from +persuading somebody to be the sixth man, so he can slip in as number +seven. If we get through to-day all right, you may come for luncheon +to-morrow, maybe. Papa told me he liked you; he said you were very +decent that night you met him on the roof of Aunt Octavia's house." +</P> + +<P> +"My compliments to your father. I hope to be able to persuade him to +extend his paternal arm to include me. Aunt Octavia must be my aunt, +too!" +</P> + +<P> +"Really!" cried Hezekiah, with indescribable mockery; and she wheeled +her horse and was gone like the wind. +</P> + +<P> +Luncheon at Hopefield passed without incident; and afterward Cecilia +retired to help her aunt with her correspondence, while Pepperton and I +lounged about the house and smoked. I told him of my ineffectual +efforts to reach Wiggins, and he volunteered to find a motor and search +for him; but I pointed out the futility of this, and renewed my appeal +that he stay on guard at Hopefield. +</P> + +<P> +At about three o'clock Cecilia reappeared. Her color was high and her +eyes were unusually brilliant. I knew that she fully realized that the +crisis was near, but she asked no questions and her manner reassured me +of her confidence. We idled on the stone terrace above the +frost-smitten garden, which in its ruin still satisfied the eye with +color. I had purposely drawn some chairs to a corner well screened by +vines, so that I could note the approach of any visitors who came cross +country by way of the stile. +</P> + +<P> +We were hardly seated before Dick entered the garden, followed +immediately by the six other suitors I had last seen at the inn. They +ranged themselves on a stone bench facing the house at the end of one +of the paths. They wore sack coats and hats in a variety of styles, so +that they did not present quite the bizarre effect produced by their +frock coats and silk tiles. They surveyed the house sadly, bowed their +heads upon their sticks, and seemed to have come to stay. The siege, +then, had become a practical matter! +</P> + +<P> +"Why don't the gentlemen come in?" asked Cecilia, peering through the +vines. +</P> + +<P> +"Hush! There's a rumor that you are terribly ill; they've come merely +to pay their tribute of respect by waiting in the garden. You had +better go quietly into the house. The shock of seeing you in your +usual health might be too much for them." +</P> + +<P> +"But I can't! I must be accessible at all times," she cried, looking +helplessly from me to Pepperton, who was all at sea for an explanation. +"If that impression is abroad, I shall appear at once." +</P> + +<P> +"Then you and Pepperton must patrol the terrace here; you are lovers +for all I know. Ignore them utterly in your absorption with one +another. If any one approaches you, Pepperton, ask Miss Hollister to +marry you." +</P> + +<P> +"Me!" gasped Pepperton. +</P> + +<P> +"No; it can't be done that way," Cecilia interposed. "Mr. Pepperton +has told me of his engagement. I can't be party to a fraud, a trick. +I can't countenance it at all. It would ruin everything!" +</P> + +<P> +"Then stay right here; pace back and forth, and I'll manage the rest. +I don't for the life of me know how, but I'll do it." +</P> + +<P> +As Cecilia and Pepperton stepped from behind the screen of vines, the +men on the benches lifted their heads; then I heard murmurs of +amazement and chagrin, and caught a fleeting glimpse of Dick tearing +through the hedge with his late companions tumbling after in fierce +pursuit. +</P> + +<P> +I ran to the stable and found a horse, feeling that I must be in a +position to move rapidly if I saw Wiggins approaching. If Dick eluded +his wrathful pursuers he would be on the lookout somewhere, awaiting +his own time, and if he saw Wiggins rushing madly for the house, he +might yet circumvent us. +</P> + +<P> +I satisfied myself that Cecilia and Pepperton were still plainly +visible from the garden, and I knew that for the time she was safe. I +gained the high point in the road from which Hezekiah and I had +observed Dick on guard at noon, and waited. Remembering the fine +figure the philosopher had made against the sky, I dismounted and +rested by a stone wall where I could watch with less risk of being seen +from a distance. +</P> + +<P> +I at once saw matters that interested me immensely. Dick had thrown +off the other suitors, and was rapidly crossing the fields toward +Hopefield. When I caught sight of him, he was just leaving the orchard +where Hezekiah and I had held our memorable interview. A long stretch +of rough pasture lay before him, and he settled down to a quick trot. +He took several fences without lessening his gait, crossed the stile +like a flash a little later, and was out of sight. +</P> + +<P> +As I turned to my horse I heard the swift patter of hoofs, and saw a +man and woman galloping furiously toward me. They were rapidly nearing +the ridge, and their horses were springing over the firm white road in +prodigious leaps. Wiggins had got my message; Hezekiah had met him in +the road and was urging him on! Here indeed was a situation to stir +the heart, and the blood sang in my ears as I watched them. I waved my +arm as they checked their horses for the long climb. The riders had +lost their hats in their mad race, and Wiggins's horse was nearly done +for. As they came still nearer, I saw that Wiggins had taken fire at +last. +</P> + +<P> +"Orton said some one was killed,—who—what—who"— +</P> + +<P> +"I just picked him up five minutes ago; he doesn't know anything," said +Hezekiah; "and you dare n't tell him—remember the rules! What's +doing?" she inquired coolly. +</P> + +<P> +She bade Wiggins exchange horses with her, and while he was readjusting +the saddle-girths I explained to Hezekiah the situation at Hopefield +and told her of Dick's scamper across the fields. +</P> + +<P> +"There's no use fooling with this thing any more. I'll take Wiggy to +the house and lock him up until I 've been numbered six,—it's safest." +</P> + +<P> +"Not much it isn't. I don't intend that Cecilia shall have the +pleasure of refusing you." +</P> + +<P> +"I'd like to know why not. It's only to fill the gap." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" said Hezekiah, "that would be an embarrassment to me all the rest +of my life. Listen carefully. Take Wiggy in by the back way, and give +him a picture-book to look at. Leave Cecilia alone on the terrace when +you're all ready, and see what happens. If Dick's on his way to the +house he's going to do something, and he must feel the edge of my +displeasure. I owe him a few on general principles." +</P> + +<P> +"What does all this mean? You say there 's nothing wrong at the +house?" began Wiggins as we left Hezekiah and started toward Hopefield. +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing whatever the matter; everything perfectly all right; but +you've got to keep mum now and do what I tell you. I've worked hard +for you, old man, and when it's all over I'm going to send you a bill +for professional services. Come!" +</P> + +<P> +I urged my horse to his utmost, and Wiggins rode steadily beside me. +The fright Orton had given him had done my friend good, and I felt that +I was dealing with a live man at last. Our speed did not permit +conversation, but feeling that Wiggins was entitled to some further +assurance, I waited until we were climbing our last hill to add a word. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll tell you all about this after we have a good-night cigar +to-night. You know I told you I was going to help, and if nothing goes +wrong and Hezekiah does n't fail, you will see the world with new eyes +before you sleep." +</P> + +<P> +We rode direct to the stable, and I took Wiggins to my room by the back +stairs and bade him help himself to my raiment. He was perfectly +tractable, and I was glad to see that he trusted implicitly to my +guidance. +</P> + +<P> +I met Miss Octavia in the lower hall. She was just in from the +kennels. Her new Airedale was a perfect specimen of the breed, she +declared, and she announced her intention of exhibiting him at all the +reputable bench shows in America. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope, Arnold, that you have not been without entertainment to-day." +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Hollister, the three musketeers were fat monks asleep under the +sunny wall of a monastery compared with me!" +</P> + +<P> +"I am glad you are not bored. By the way, if you should by any chance +see Hezekiah, you will kindly intimate to her that if she returns that +Estabrook mare she borrowed this morning in reasonably good condition, +I will overlook her indiscretion in taking it from the stable without +permission." +</P> + +<P> +She did not wait for a reply, but continued on to her room, and I went +direct to the terrace. Cecilia and Pepperton were just going into the +house to look up a book or piece of music which they had been +discussing. Cecilia was making herself interesting, as she so well +knew how to do, and she seemed in no wise anxious. +</P> + +<P> +"We had forgotten tea," she said. "Aunt Octavia has just ordered it." +</P> + +<P> +"She and Mr. Pepperton may have their tea. I believe the air outside +will do you good for a little longer,—so if you don't mind, Pepperton, +Miss Hollister will resume her promenade alone." +</P> + +<P> +Pep has told me since that he thought me quite mad that afternoon. I +bade Cecilia patrol the long terrace slowly. She turned up the collar +of the covert coat and obeyed, laughing a little nervously but asking +no questions. The scene could not have been more charmingly set. The +great house loomed darkly behind her; beneath lay the garden, over +which the dusk was stealing goldenly. +</P> + +<P> +She paused suddenly as I watched from the window, and I stepped out to +see what had attracted her attention. There into the garden from its +farther entrance filed the six suitors who had previously come to sit +beneath the windows of their stricken lady! Having failed to visit +their wrath upon the perfidious Dick they had changed their clothes and +returned to Hopefield. If Hezekiah had not expressly commanded me not +to become the sixth man, I should have offered myself on the spot, and +waited only until Cecilia had made the inevitable answer before +summoning Wiggins to end the whole affair. Such, however, was not to +be the order of events. +</P> + +<P> +The procession, headed by Ormsby, was within a few yards of the +terrace. Cecilia, apparently unconscious of their proximity, continued +her promenade. In a moment she must recognize them, ask them into the +house, give them tea, and otherwise destroy my hope of securing her +happiness before the day's end. +</P> + +<P> +A chorus of yelps and barks, as of dogs suddenly released, greeted my +ear. The oncoming suitors heard it too, and the line wobbled +uncertainly. Then round the house swept mastiffs, hounds, terriers,—a +collection of prize-winners such as few kennels ever boasted, loping +gayly in unwonted freedom toward unknown and forbidden pastures. +</P> + +<P> +The vanguard of fox-terriers leaped down into the garden, with the rest +of the pack at their heels. Happy dogs, to find grown men ready for a +gambol! Six coat-tails streamed from the hips of six gentlemen in a +hurry. Several battered hats mixed with geraniums were retained later +as spoils of war by the gardener. That garden had been built for +repose and contemplative amblings, not for panic and flight. The +disorder was superior in picturesqueness to that which attended the +pumpkin stampede; at least it struck me at the moment as funnier; and I +have never since been able to attend a day wedding without appearing +idiotic—the procession of ushers suggests possibilities that are too +much for me. Four of the suitors found one of the proper exits into +the road; two leaped the box-hedge on the other side without shaking a +leaf. +</P> + +<P> +I ran round the house, stumbling through the rear-guard of the truant +canines, and passing the kennel-master, who had rallied the stable men +and was in hot pursuit. +</P> + +<P> +"Somebody turned 'em out—turned 'em out!" he shouted, and swept +profanely by. The gate of the kennel-yard stood open. A familiar +figure, running low, paused, and then sprinted nimbly along the paddock +fence. A white sweater was distinguishable for a moment on a stone +wall, then it followed a pair of enchanted heels into oblivion. +</P> + +<P> +Time had been passing swiftly, and the shadows were deepening. I +retraced my steps toward the terrace, hearing the cries of pursued and +pursuers growing fainter. I had not yet gained a position from which I +could see Cecilia, when a man appeared some distance ahead of me, +walking guardedly in one of the garden-plots. He came uncertainly, +pausing to glance about, yet evidently led toward the terrace by a +definite purpose. All may be fair in love and war, but I confess to a +feeling of pity for John Stewart Dick as I watched him slowly advancing +to his fate. He was going boldly now, and I felt a sudden liking for +him; nor can I believe that he was other than a manly fellow with sound +brains and a good heart. +</P> + +<P> +I reasoned, as I marked his approach to the terrace, that he had been +loitering in the neighborhood, probably watching Cecilia and Pepperton, +and when the architect retired, he had assumed that the sixth man had +spoken. The appearance of his former comrades of the inn had doubtless +disturbed him as it had me; then, thanks to the resourceful Hezekiah, +they had been routed and the coast was clear. I think it likely that +the sight of Cecilia sombrely pacing the terrace in the darkening +shadows was too much for his philosophic poise, or like the rest of us +who were actors in that comedy, he may have felt that any end was +better than the doubts and uncertainties that beset us. +</P> + +<P> +I watched him draw nearer to Cecilia as I have watched deer go down to +a lake to drink. He would speak now; I was confident of it; and I +stole round to the side entrance and sent word to Wiggins to go to the +drawing-room and wait for me. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Octavia and Pepperton still lingered over their tea-cups. The row +made by the fugitives from her kennels had not, it seemed, penetrated +to the library, and Miss Octavia bade me join the talk, which had to +do, I remember, with some project for a national hall of fame that had +incurred her characteristic displeasure. A hall of immortal rascals in +pillories she thought far likelier to please the masses. +</P> + +<P> +In fifteen minutes I saw Cecilia crossing the hall. She stopped where +I could see her quite plainly, and thrust her hand into the pocket of +her coat. Out flashed the silver note-book. She made a swift notation +with the pencil that now, I knew, wrote the fate of the sixth man. +</P> + +<P> +I went out and spoke to her, and walked beside her to the drawing-room +door, where Hartley Wiggins was waiting. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Octavia had risen when I returned to the library, and it was time +to dress for dinner. +</P> + +<P> +"Just a moment, Miss Hollister. Something of great interest is about +to occur;" and I made excuses for detaining her for perhaps five +minutes,—not more. +</P> + +<P> +"You have never yet deceived me, Arnold Ames, and such is my confidence +in you that if you tell me that something interesting will soon occur, +I have no reason to doubt you. It is worth remembering, however, that +fowl is not improved by prolonged roasting." +</P> + +<P> +I heard Wiggins laugh in the hall, and Miss Octavia raised her head. +Then Cecilia came into the room, and walked directly to her aunt. +</P> + +<P> +"Aunt Octavia, here is the little silver notebook you gave me in Paris; +I have just written Mr. Wiggins's name in it, and as I have no further +use for the book, I return it with my love and thanks." +</P> + +<P> +Without a word, Miss Octavia turned to the wall and pressed the button +twice. +</P> + +<P> +"William," she said as the butler appeared, "you may serve Oriana '97, +and be careful not to freeze it to death; and the hour for dinner is +changed to eight. Arnold, you may yourself drive to Gooseberry +Bungalow for my brother and niece. They dine with me to-night." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Hezekiah and I built our bungalow in the orchard where on that October +afternoon I found her munching a red apple on the stone wall. She is +the most scrupulous of housewives, and only now took me to task for +scattering the hearth with fragments of the notes from which this +narrative has been written. She has just been reading these last +pages, with meditative brown eyes, and not without occasionally +reaching for the pen and retouching some sentence in which, she says, +soot from my chimney-doctoring days has clogged the ink. Cecilia and +Wiggins live at Hopefield across the fields. Miss Octavia insisted on +this, for the reason that the sword of Hartley's great-grandfather, +found in the chest under the old house, gives him inalienable rights to +the premises. Miss Octavia and her brother Bassford are traveling +abroad and enjoying those mild adventures to which they are both +temperamentally inclined. As Miss Octavia carried with her the Parker +House umbrella-check I am confident of her early return. +</P> + +<P> +My name is joined to Pepperton's on his office-door. Pepperton +proposed this arrangement, with so many assurances of faith in me that +I could not refuse him; but I knew well enough that Miss Octavia had +first put it into his head. So while I have called myself a +chimney-doctor in these pages, I am again an architect, and the new +cathedral now rising at Waxahaxie is, let me modestly note, the work of +my hand. +</P> + +<P> +"You ought to say something more about the Asolando," Hezekiah has just +murmured at my shoulder. "Everybody will ask whether we ever went back +there." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course we go back there, Hezekiah, every time you come to town and +can get hold of me. Will that be enough?" +</P> + +<P> +"You'd better explain that Aunt Octavia started the tea-room and still +owns it, and makes money out of it, though she rarely goes there, but +sends Freda the maid to collect the profits. And it won't do any harm +to say that when she met you there that day, she decided at once that +you would be a proper husband for me. Any one who reads your book will +want to know that." +</P> + +<P> +Hezekiah is always right; so here endeth the chronicle. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t4"> +The Riverside Press +<BR> +CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS +<BR> +U . S . A +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<HR> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap21"></A> + +<P CLASS="t2"> +THE RIGHT STUFF +</P> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +By IAN HAY +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"Those who love the companionship of people of fine fibre, and to whom +a sense of humor has not been denied, will make no mistake in seeking +the society open to them in 'The Right Stuff.'"—<I>New York Times</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"Hay resembles Barrie, and, like Barrie, he will grow in many +ways."—<I>Cleveland Leader</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"A compelling tribute to the homely genuineness and sterling worth of +Scottish character."—<I>St. Louis Post Dispatch</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"Mr. Hay has written a story which is pure story and is a delight from +beginning to end."—<I>San Francisco Argonaut</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"It would be hard, indeed, to find a more winning book."—<I>New Orleans +Times-Democrat</I>. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +With frontispiece by James Montgomery Flagg. 12mo. +</P> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +$1.20 net. Postage 10 cents. +</P> + +<BR> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t2"> +THE TWISTED FOOT +</P> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +By HENRY MILNER RIDEOUT +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"Henry Milner Rideout has written several good stories of Oriental +mystery, but none of them approach in excellence 'The Twisted +Foot.'"—<I>Cleveland Plain Dealer</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"The story is fascinating and full of the witchery of the +East."—<I>Congregationalist</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"Its persuasiveness of action, its alluring color and high heart +courage, make it one of the striking romances of the time."—<I>New York +American</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"The whole story glows with the local life and color."—<I>New York +Times</I>. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +With seven full-page illustrations by G. C. Widney. +</P> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +12mo. $1.20 net. 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Nesbit, who hitherto has stood +practically alone as a charmingly humorous interpreter of child +life."—<I>Chicago Inter-Ocean</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"A charming, witty, tender book."—<I>Kate Douglas Wiggin</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"It is a sunny, warm-hearted humorous story, that leaves the reader +with a sense of time well spent in its perusal."—<I>Brooklyn Eagle</I>. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +16mo. $1.00 net. Postage 10 cents. +</P> + +<BR> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t2"> +FARMING IT +</P> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +By HENRY A. SHUTE +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"There is nothing funnier in Mark Twain."—<I>Grand Rapids Herald</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"Every man and woman who lives, or ever has lived, in the country will +appreciate the situations described.... They are funny enough to +disturb the calm of the most serious countenance."—<I>Boston Globe</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"Includes more fun than is concealed in all his other books taken +together."—<I>Living Age</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"The book is extraordinarily frank ... spicy and +enlivening."—<I>Baltimore News</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"A wholesome and invigorating sort of book.... A real story of real +life cheerfully narrated."—<I>New York Times</I>. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +Fully illustrated by Reginald B. Birch +</P> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +12mo. $1.20 net. Postage 12 cents +</P> + +<BR> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t2"> +OLD HARBOR +</P> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +By WILLIAM JOHN HOPKINS +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"A charming picture of an old New England sea-port.... It is a book to +close reluctantly with the hope of soon opening another volume by the +same author."—<I>New York Times</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"A tale to chuckle over.... It is not often that a reader has an +opportunity in the pages of a book to come in touch with such a group +of genial and lovable people."—<I>Minneapolis Journal</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"A cheerful, amusing story of old-fashioned people.... The author is a +genuine humorist."—<I>Boston Transcript</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"A story conceived in the same spirit as 'The Clammer,' filled with the +same philosophy, displaying the same keen insight."—<I>Brooklyn Eagle</I>. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +Square crown 8vo. $1.25 net. Postage 14 cents +</P> + +<BR> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t2"> +THE BREAKING IN OF A YACHTSMAN'S WIFE +</P> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +By MARY HEATON VORSE +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"Clever! Sparkling! Full of quaint humor and crisp description! +Altogether a book which will not disappoint the reader. It is +'different,' and that is one great merit in a book."—<I>Brooklyn Eagle</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"It will puzzle holiday makers to find a better vacation book than +this. Those who go up and down the Sound in yachts will find it +especially pleasing; it will appeal to those who are fond of human +nature studies; may be recommended even more decidedly to the serious +than to the young and frivolous; a tonic to depression and an antidote +to gloom."—<I>N. Y. Times</I>. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +"Charming, with its salt, sea-slangy flavor, its double love thread, +and its pleasant chapters dealing with Long Island Sound, the +Mediterranean, Massachusetts Bay and Venetian lagoons."—<I>Chicago +Record-Herald</I>. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="t3"> +Illustrated by Reginald Birch. 12mo, $1.50 +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="t2"> +HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY +<BR> +BOSTON AND NEW YORK +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Siege of the Seven Suitors, by +Meredith Nicholson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SIEGE OF THE SEVEN SUITORS *** + +***** This file should be named 35942-h.htm or 35942-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/9/4/35942/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Siege of the Seven Suitors + +Author: Meredith Nicholson + +Illustrator: C. Coles Phillips + Reginald Birch + +Release Date: April 24, 2011 [EBook #35942] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SIEGE OF THE SEVEN SUITORS *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + +[Frontispiece: "Hezekiah"] + + + + + +The Siege of + +The Seven Suitors + + +BY + +MEREDITH NICHOLSON + +AUTHOR OF "THE HOUSE OF A THOUSAND CANDLES," ETC. + + +ILLUSTRATED BY C. COLES PHILLIPS + +AND REGINALD BIRCH + + + + +BOSTON AND NEW YORK + +HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY + +The Riverside Press Cambridge + +1910 + + + +COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY MEREDITH NICHOLSON + +ALL RIGHTS RESERVED + + +_Published October 1910_ + + + + +TO + +THE HONORABLE THOMAS R. MARSHALL + +MY DEAR GOVERNOR:--It was ordered by the franchises of destiny that you +become the chief executive of a state in which the telling of tales +brightened the hunter's camp-fire and cheered the lonely pioneer's +cabin before our people learned the uses of ink; and the supreme +fitness of this lies in the fact that you are yourself the best of +story-tellers and entitled, for your excellence in this particular, as +well as for weightier reasons, to sit at the head of the table in that +commonwealth to which we are both bound by many and dear ties. + +The morning brings to your mail-box so many demands, necessitating the +most varied and delicate balancings and adjustments, that I serve you +ill in adding to your burdens the little packet that contains this +tale. Pray consider, however, that I have hidden it discreetly beneath +a pile of documents touching nearly the state's business; or that I +hastily serve it upon you in the highway, an unsanctioned writ from +that high court of letters in which I am the least valiant among the +bailiffs. + +Sincerely yours, + M. N. + +MACKINAC ISLAND, + _August_ 10, 1910. + + + + +CONTENTS + + I. MY FRIEND WIGGINS IS INTRODUCED + II. THE BEGINNING OF MY ADVENTURE + III. I FALL INTO A BRIAR PATCH + IV. WE DINE IN THE GUN-ROOM + V. THE STRANGE BEHAVIOR OF A CHIMNEY + VI. I DELIVER A MESSAGE + VII. NINE SILK HATS CROSS A STILE + VIII. CECILIA'S SILVER NOTE-BOOK + IX. I MEET A PLAYFUL GHOST + X. MY BEFUDDLEMENT INCREASES + XI. I PLAY TRUANT + XII. THE RIDDLE OF THE SIBYL'S LEAVES + XIII. I DISCOVER TWO GHOSTS + XIV. LADY'S SLIPPER + XV. LOSS OF THE SILVER NOTE-BOOK + XVI. JACK O' LANTERN + XVII. SEVEN GOLD REEDS + XVIII. TROUBLE AT THE PRESCOTT ARMS + XIX. THE GHOST OF ADONIRAM CALDWELL + XX. HEZEKIAH PARTITIONS THE KINGDOM + + + + +THE SIEGE OF THE SEVEN SUITORS + + + +I + +MY FRIEND WIGGINS IS INTRODUCED + +I dined with Hartley Wiggins at the Hare and Tortoise on an evening in +October, not very long ago. It may be well to explain that the Hare +and Tortoise is the smallest and most select of clubs, whose windows +afford a pleasant view of Gramercy Park. The club is comparatively +young, and it is our joke that we are so far all tortoises, creeping +through our several professions without aid from any hare. I hasten to +explain that I am a chimney doctor. Wiggins is a lawyer; at least I +have seen his name in a list of graduates of the Harvard Law School, +and he has an office down-town where I have occasionally found him +sedately playing solitaire while he waited for some one to take him out +to luncheon. He spends his summers on a South Dakota ranch, from which +he derives a considerable income. When tough steaks are served from +the club grill, we always attribute them to the cattle on Wiggins's +hills. Or if the lamb is ancient, we declare it to be of Wiggins's +shepherding. It is the way of our humor to hold Wiggins responsible +for things. His good nature is usually equal to the worst we can do to +him. He is the kind of fellow that one instinctively indicts without +hearing testimony. We all know perfectly well that Wiggins's ranch is +a wheat ranch. + +Wiggins is an athlete, and his summers in the West and persistent +training during the winter in town keep him in fine condition. As I +faced him to-night in our favorite corner of the Hare and Tortoise +dining-room, the physical man was fit enough; but I saw at once that he +was glum and dispirited. He had through many years honored me with his +confidence, and I felt that to-night, after we got well started, I +should hear what was on his mind. I hoped to cheer him with the story +of a visit I had by chance paid that afternoon to the Asolando +Tea-Room; for though Wiggins is a most practical person, I imagined +that he would be diverted by my description of a place which, I felt +sure, nothing could tempt him to visit. I shall never forget the look +he gave me when I remarked, at about his third spoonful of soup: + +"By the way, I dropped into an odd place this afternoon. Burne-Jones +buns, maccaroons, and all that sort of thing. They call it the +Asolando." + +I was ambling on, expecting to sharpen his curiosity gradually as I +recited the joys of the tea-room; but at "Asolando" his spoon dropped, +and he stared at me blankly. It should be known that Wiggins is not a +man whose composure is lightly shaken. The waiter who served us +glanced at him in surprise, a fact which I mention merely to confirm my +assertion that the dropping of a spoon into his soup was an +extraordinary occurrence in Wiggins's life. Wiggins was a proper +person. On the ranch, twenty miles from a railroad, he always dressed +for dinner. + +"The Asolando," I repeated, to break the spell of his blank stare. +"Know the place?" + +He recovered in a moment, but he surveyed me quizzically before +replying. + +"Of course I have heard of the Asolando, but I thought you did n't go +in for that sort of thing. It's a trifle girlish, you know." + +"That's hardly against it! I found the girlishness altogether +attractive." + +"You always were tolerably susceptible, but broiled butterflies and +moth-wings souffle seem to me rather pale food for a man in your +vigorous health." + +"They must have discriminated in your favor; I saw no such things, +though to be sure I was afraid to quibble over the waitress's +suggestions. May I ask when you were there?" + +"Oh, I dropped in quite accidentally one day last spring. I saw the +sign, and remembered that somebody had spoken of the place, and I was +tired, and it was a long way to the club, and"-- + +Dissimulation is not an art as Wiggins attempts to practice it at +times. He is by nature the most straightforward of mortals. It was +clear that he was withholding something, and I resolved to get to the +bottom of it. + +"I don't think the Asolando is a place that would attract either of us, +and yet the viands are good as such stuff goes, and the gentle +hand-maidens are restful to the eye,--Pippa, Francesca, Gloria, and the +rest of 'em." + +Wiggins pried open his artichoke with the care of a botanist. He had +regained his composure, but I saw that the subject interested him. + +"You were there this afternoon?" he inquired. + +"Yes, my first and only appearance." + +"And this is Monday." + +"The calendar has said it." + +"So you settled your bill with Pippa! I believe this was her day." + +"Then you really do know the inner workings of the Asolando," I +continued; "I thought you would show your hand presently. Then it is +perhaps Gloria, Beatrice or Francesca who minds the till on Tuesdays, +Thursdays and Saturdays, alternating with Pippa, who took my coin +to-day. It's a pretty idea. It has the delicacy of an arrangement by +Whistler or the charm of a line in Rossetti. So you have seen the +blessed damozel at the cash-desk." + +"On the contrary I was never there on Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday, +and I therefore passed no coin to Francesca, Gloria or Beatrice. My +only visit was on a day last May, and my recollection of the system is +doubtless imperfect." + +"Then beyond doubt I saw Pippa. She makes the change on Monday, +Wednesday and Friday. Her eyelashes are a trifle too long for the +world's peace." + +"I dare say. I have n't your charming knack, Ames, of picking up +acquaintances, so you must n't expect me to form life-long friendships +with young women at cash-desks. I suppose it did n't occur to you that +those young women who tend till and serve the tables in there are +persons of education and taste. The Asolando is not a common hashery. +I sometimes fear that so much crawling through chimneys is clouding +your intellect. It ought to have been clear even to your smoky +chimney-pot that those girls in there are not the kind you can ask to +meet you by the old mill at the fall of dewy eve, or who write notes to +popular romantic actors. There's not a girl in that place who has n't +a social position as good as yours or mine. The Asolando's a kind of +fad, you know, Ames; it's not a tavern within the meaning of the +inn-keepers' act, where common swine are fed for profit. The servants +serve for love of the cause; it's a sort of cult. But I suppose you +are incapable of grasping it. There was always something sordid in +you, and I'm pained to find that you're getting worse." + +Wiggins had, before now, occasionally taken this attitude toward me, +and it was always with a view to obscuring some real issue between us. +He requires patience; it is a mistake to attempt to crowd him; but give +him rope and he will twist his own halter. + +We sparred further without result. I had suggested a topic that had +clearly some painful association for my friend. He drank his coffee +gloomily and lighted a cigar much blacker than the one I knew to be his +favorite in the Hare and Tortoise humidor. He excused himself shortly, +and I had a glimpse of him later, in the writing-room, engaged upon +letters, a fact in itself disquieting, for Wiggins never wrote letters, +and it was he who had favored making the Hare and Tortoise writing-room +into a den for pipe-smokers. The epistolary habit, he maintained, was +one that should be discouraged. + +I was moodily turning over the evening newspapers when Jewett turned +up. Jewett always knows everything. I shall not call him a gossip, +but he comes as near deserving the name as a man dares who lectures on +the Renaissance before clubs and boarding-schools. Jewett knows his +Botticelli, but his knowledge of his contemporaries is equally exact. +He dropped the ball into the green of my immediate interest with a neat +approach-shot. + +"Too bad about old Wiggy," he remarked with his preluding sigh. + +"What's the matter with Wiggins?" I demanded. + +"Ah! He has n't told you? Thought he told you everything." + +This was meant for a stinger, and I felt the bite of it. + +"You do me too much honor. Wiggins is not a man to throw around his +confidences." + +"And I rather fancy that his love-affairs in particular are locked in +his bosom." + +Jewett was a master of the art of suggestion; he took an unnecessarily +long time to light a cigar so that his words might sink deep into my +consciousness. + +"Saw her once last spring. Got a sight draft from the Bank of Eros. +Followed her across the multitudinous sea. Bang!" + +"But Wiggy has n't been abroad. Wiggy was on his Dakota ranch all +summer. He's all tanned from the sun, just as he is every fall," I +persisted. + +"Wrote you from out there, did he? Sent you picture-postals showing +him herding his cattle, or whatever the beasts are? Kept in touch with +you all the time, did he? I tell you his fine color is due to +Switzerland, not Dakota." + +"Wiggins is n't a letter-writer, nor the sort of person who wants to +paper your house with picture-postals. His not writing does n't mean +that he was n't on his ranch," I replied, annoyed by Jewett's manner. + +"Never dropped you before, though, I wager," he chirruped. "I tell you +he saw Miss Cecilia Hollister at the Asolando tea-shop: just a glimpse; +but almost immediately he went abroad in pursuit of her. The +chevalier--that's her aunt Octavia--was along and another niece. My +sister saw the bunch of them in Geneva, where the chevalier was +breaking records. A whole troop of suitors followed them everywhere. +My sister knows the girl--Cecilia--and she's known Wiggy all her life. +She's just home and told me about it last night. She thinks the +chevalier has some absurd scheme for marrying off the girl. It's all +very queer, our Wiggy being mixed up in it." + +"Don't be absurd, Jewett. There's nothing unusual in a man being in +love; that's one fashion that does n't change much. I venture to say +that Wiggins will prove a formidable suitor. Wiggins is a gentleman, +and the girl would be lucky to get him." + +"Quite right, my dear Ames; but alas! there are others. The +competition is encouraged by the aunt, the veteran chevalier. My +sister says the chevalier seems to favor the suit of a Nebraska +philosopher who rejoices in the melodious name of Dick." + +Jewett was playing me for all his story was worth, and enjoying himself +immensely. + +"For Heaven's sake, go on!" + +"Nice girl, this Cecilia. You know the Hollisters,--oodles of money in +the family. The chevalier's father scored big in +baby-buggies--responsible for the modern sleep-inducing perambulators; +sold out to a trust. The father of Wiggins's inamorata had started in +to be a marine painter. A founder of this club, come to think of it, +but dropped out long ago. You have heard of him--Bassford Hollister. +Funny thing his having to give up art. Great gifts for the marine, but +never could overcome tendency to seasickness. Honest! Every time he +painted a wave it upset him horribly. The doctors could n't help him. +Next tried his hand at the big gulches down-town. There was a chance +there to hit off the metropolitan sky-line and become immortal by doing +it first; but a new trouble developed. Doing the high buildings made +him dizzy! Honest! He was good, too, and would have made a place, but +he had to cut it out. He was so torn up over his two failures that he +blew in his share of the perambulator money in riotous living. Lost +his wife into the bargain, and has settled down to a peaceful life up +in Westchester County in one of these cute little bungalows the +real-estate operators build for you if you pay a dollar down for a +picture of an acre lot." + +"And the daughter?" + +"Well, Bassford Hollister has two daughters. It's the older one that +has stolen Wiggins's heart away. She's Cecilia, you know. Very +literary and that sort of thing, and pushed tea and cookies at the +Asolando when that idiocy was opened. Wiggins saw her there last +spring. Miss Hollister, the aunt,--whom I 'm fond of calling the +chevalier,--picked up her nieces about that time and hauled them off to +Europe, and Wiggins scampered after them. I don't know what they did +to Wiggy, but you see how he acts. I rather imagine that the chevalier +did n't smile on his suit. She's a holy terror, that woman, with an +international reputation for doing weird and most unaccountable things. +She draws a sort of royalty on all the baby-buggies in creation; it +amounts to a birth-tax, in contravention of the free guarantees of the +Constitution. The people will rise against it some day. + +"She's plausible enough, but she's the past mistress of ulterior +motive. She got Fortner, the mural painter, up to a place she used to +have at Newport a few years ago, ostensibly to do a frieze or +something, and she made him teach her to fire a gun. You know Fortner, +with his artistic ideals! And he did n't know any more about guns than +a flea. It was droll, decidedly droll. But she kept him there a +month,--wouldn't let him off the reservation; but she paid him his fee +just the same, though he never painted a stroke. When he got back to +town, he was a wreck. It was just like being in jail. I warn you to +let her alone. If you should undertake to fix her flues she's likely +to put you to work digging potatoes. She's no end of a case." + +"Well, Wiggins is a good fellow, one of the very best," I remarked, as +I absorbed these revelations, "and it is n't the girl's aunt he wants +to marry." + +"He's a capital fellow," affirmed Jewett, "and that's why it's a sin +this had to happen to him. There's no telling where this affair may +lead him. There's something queer in the wind, all right. The +chevalier has brother Bassford where he can't whimper; I rather fancy +he feeds from her hand. His girls have n't any prospects except +through the chevalier. Nice girls, so I'm told; but between the father +with his vertiginous tendencies and a lunatic aunt who holds the family +money-bags, I don't see much ahead of them. Miss Cecilia Hollister is +living with her aunt; it's a sort of compulsory sequestration; she has +to do it whether she wants to or not. I rather fancy it's to keep her +away from Wiggins." + +"And the other sister; where does she come in?" + +"Not important, I fancy. Rumor is silent touching her. In fact I 've +never heard anything of her. But this Cecilia is no end handsome and +proud. Poor old Wiggy!" + +I was already ashamed of myself for having encouraged Jewett to discuss +Wiggins's affairs, and was about to leave him, when he snorted, in a +disagreeable way he had, at some joke that had occurred to him, and he +continued chuckling to himself to attract my attention. My frown did +not dismay him. + +[Illustration: He continued chuckling to himself to attract my +attention.] + +"I knew there was something," he was saying, "about Miss Cecilia's +younger sister, and I've just recalled it. The girl has a most +extraordinary name, quite the most remarkable you ever heard." + +He laughed until he was purple in the face. I did not imagine that any +name known to feminine nomenclature could be so humorous. + +"Hezekiah! Bang! That's the little sister's name. Bassford Hollister +had been saving that name for a son, who never appeared, to do honor to +old Hezekiah, the perambulator-chap. So they named the girl for her +grand-dad. Bang! One of the apostles, Hezekiah!" + +I waited for his mirth to wear itself out, and then rose, to terminate +the interview with an adequate dramatic dismissal. + +"You poor pagan," I remarked, with such irony as I could command; "it's +too bad you insist on revealing the abysmal depths of your ignorance: +Hezekiah was not an apostle, but a mighty king before the day of +apostles." + +I left him blinking, and unconvinced as to Hezekiah's proper place in +history. + +Wiggins, I learned at the office, had, within half an hour, left the +club hurriedly in a cab, taking a trunk with him. He had mentioned no +mail-address to the clerk. + +And this was very unlike Wiggins. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE BEGINNING OF MY ADVENTURE + +Wiggins's strange conduct and Jewett's dark hints so disturbed me that +the very next afternoon I again sought the Asolando Tea-Room, feeling +that in its atmosphere I might best weigh the few facts I possessed +touching my friend's love-affairs. + +Those who care for details in these matters may be interested to know +that the Asolando is tucked away among print-shops and exclusive +haberdashers, a stone's throw from Fifth Avenue. The Asolando Tea-Room +has a history of its own, but it is not the office of this chronicler +to record it. Weightier matters are ahead of us; and it must suffice +that the Asolando is sacred to wooers of the flute of Pan, secession +photographers, and confident believers in an early revival of the +poetic drama. One of my friends, who has probably done more to +popularize Nietzsche than any other American, had frequently urged me +to visit the Asolando, where, he declared, the daintiest imaginable +luncheons could be obtained at nominal prices; but I should not have +paid this second visit had it not been for Jewett's history. + +It was common gossip in studios where I loafed between my professional +engagements, that the monthly deficit at the Asolando was cared for by +a retired banker whose weakness is sonnet-sequences. As to the truth +of this I have no opinion. It will suffice if I convey in the fewest +possible lines a suggestion of the tranquillity, the charming cloistral +peace of the little room, with its Arts and Crafts chairs and tables, +its racks of books, its portraits of Browning, Rossetti, Burne-Jones +and kindred spirits; nor should I fail to mention the delightful +inadvertence with which neatly framed excerpts from the bright page of +British song are scattered along the walls. Nowhere else, many had +averred, was one so likely to learn of the latest Celtic poet, or of a +newly-discovered Keats letter; and lest injustice be done in these +suggestions to the substantial scholarly attainments of the habitues, I +must record that it was over a cup of tea in the Asolando that Bennett +made the first notes for his revolutionary essay on the Sapphic +fragments in a dog-eared text still treasured among the Room's +memorabilia. + +I chose a table, sat down, and suggested (one does not order at the +Asolando) a few articles from the card an attendant handed me. + +"We 're out of the Paracelsus ginger-cookies," she replied, "but I +recommend a Ruskin sandwich with our own special chocolate. The +whipped cream is unusually fine to-day." + +She eyed me with a severity to which I was not accustomed, and I +acquiesced without parley in her suggestion. Before leaving me she +placed on my table the latest minor poet, in green and gold. + +It was nearly three o'clock, and there were few customers in the +Asolando. At the next table two women were engaged in conversation in +the subdued tones the place compelled. I surmised from the amount and +variety of their impedimenta and their abstracted air, peculiar to +those who partake of lobster salad with an eye on the 4.18, that they +were suburbanites. One of them drew from her net shopping-bag several +sheets of robin's-egg blue note-paper and began to read. By the jingle +of the rhymes and the flow of the rhythm it was clear even to my +ignorant lay mind that her offering was a _chant-royale_. When she had +concluded her reading her friend silently pressed her hand, and after a +subdued debate for possession of the check, they took their departure, +bound, I surmised, for some muse-haunted Lesbos among the hills of New +Jersey. + +I was now alone in the Asolando. The attending deities in their snowy +gowns had vanished behind the screen at the rear of the room; the food +and drink with which I had been promptly served proved excellent; even +the minor poet in green and gold had held my attention, though +imitations of Coventry Patmore's odes bore me as a rule. Near the +street, half-concealed behind a mosque-like grill, sat the cashier, +reading. A bundle of joss-sticks in a green jar beside this young +woman sent a thin smoke into the air. Her head was bent above her book +in quiet attention; the light from an electric lamp made a glow of her +golden hair. She was an incident of the general picture, a part of a +scene that contained no jarring note. A man who could devise, in the +heart of the great city, a place so instinct with repose, so lulling to +all the senses, was not less than a public benefactor, and I resolved +on the spot to purchase and read, at any sacrifice, the +sonnet-sequences of the reputed angel of the Asolando. + +It was at this moment that the adventure--for it shall have no meaner +name--actually began. My eyes were still enjoying the Rossetti-like +vision in the cashier's tiny booth, when a figure suddenly darkened the +street door just beyond her. The girl lifted her head. On the instant +the lamp-key clicked as she extinguished her light, and the aureoled +head ceased to be. And coming toward me down the shop I beheld a lady, +a lady of years, who passed the cashier's desk with her eyes intent +upon the room's inner recesses. Her gown, of a new fashionable gray, +was of the severest tailor cut. Her hat was a modified fedora, gray +like the gown, and adorned with a single gray feather. She was short, +slight, erect, and moved with a quick bird-like motion, pausing and +glancing at the vacant tables that lay between me and the door. Her +air of abstraction became her, and she merged pleasantly into the +color-scheme of the room. As her glance ranged the wall I thought that +she searched for some favorite flower of song among the framed +quotations, but I saw now that her gaze was bent too low for this. She +appeared to be engaged in a calculation of some sort, and she raised a +lorgnette to assist her in counting the tables. The cashier passed +behind her unseen and vanished. I heard the newcomer reciting:-- + +"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven;" and at seven her eyes rested +upon me with a look that mingled surprise and annoyance. She took a +step toward me, and I started to rise, but she said quickly:-- + +"I beg your pardon, but this seems to be the seventh table." + +[Illustration: "I beg your pardon, but this seems to be the seventh +table."] + +"Now that you call my attention to it," I remarked, gaining my feet, "I +am bound to concede the point. If by any chance I am intruding"-- + +"Not in the least. On the other hand I beg that you remain where you +are;" and without further ado she sank into a chair opposite my own. + +I tinkled a tiny crystal bell that was among the table-furnishings, and +a waitress appeared and handed the lady who had thus introduced herself +to my acquaintance a copy of the tiny card on which the articles of +refreshment offered by the Asolando were indicated within a border of +hand-painted field daisies. + +"Never mind that," said the lady in gray, ignoring the card. "You may +bring me a caviare sandwich and a cocktail,--a pink +one--providing,--providing,"--and she held the waitress with her +eye,--"you have the imported caviare and your bar-keeper knows the +proper frappe of the spirit-lifter I have named." + +"Pardon me, madam," replied the waitress icily, "but you have mistaken +the place. The Asolando serves nothing stronger than the pure water of +its own fount of Castalia; intoxicants are not permitted here." + +"Intoxicants!" repeated the old lady with asperity. "Do I look like a +person given to intoxication? I dare say your Castalia water is +nothing but Croton whose flavor has been destroyed by distillation. +You may bring me the sandwich I have mentioned and with it a pot of +tea. Yes, thank you; lemon with the tea." + +As the girl vanished with the light tread that marked the service of +the place, I again made as to rise, but the old lady lifted her hand +with a delaying gesture. + +"Pray remain. It is not unlikely that we have friends and ideas in +common, and as you were seated at the seventh table it is possible that +some ordering of fate has brought us together." + +She took from me, in the hand which she had now ungloved, the copy of +my minor poet, glanced at it scornfully, and tossed it upon the floor +with every mark of disdain. + +"What species of mental disorder does this place represent?" she +demanded. + +"It is sacred to the fine arts, apparently; an endowed tea-room, where +persons of artistic ideals may come to refresh body and soul. Such at +least seems to be the programme. This is only my second visit, but I +have long heard it spoken of by artists, poets, and others of my +friends." + +"I am sixty-two years old, young man, and I beg to inform you that I +consider the Asolando the most preposterous thing I have ever heard of +in this most preposterous city. And from a casual glimpse of you I +feel justified in saying that a man in your apparent physical health +might be in better business than frequenting, in mid-afternoon, a shop +that seems to be a remarkably stupid expression of twentieth-century +anaemia." + +"Attendance here is not compulsory," I remarked defensively. + +"If you imply that I must have sought the place voluntarily, let me +correct your false impression immediately. I dropped in here for the +excellent reason that this shop is the seventh in numerical progression +from Fifth Avenue." + +"You were not guided by any feeling of interest, then, but rather by +superstition?" + +"That remark is unworthy of a man of your apparent intelligence. I was +born on the seventh of November, and all the great events of my life +have occurred on the seventh of the month. If you were to suggest that +I am of an adventurous or romantic nature, I should readily acquiesce; +but the sevens in my life have been so potent an influence in all my +affairs that my belief in that numeral has become almost a religious +faith; and if you have been a reader of Scripture you will understand +that one does not become a pagan in ascribing to seven all manner of +subtle influences." + +I was relieved to find that she accepted the tea and sandwiches the +waitress had brought without parley. It is with shame I confess that +in the first moments of my encounter I believed her capable of +quarreling with a waitress; but she thanked the girl pleasantly, +lifting her head with a smile that illumined her face attractively. +Her demand for a cocktail had not been wholly convincing as to her +sincerity, and I wondered whether she were not playing a part of some +kind. She suggested pleasant and wholesome things--tiny gardens with +neat borders of box and primly-ordered beds of spicy, old-fashioned +pinks before the day of carnations, and the verbenas, heliotrope, and +honeysuckle we associate with our grandmothers' taste in floriculture. +Or perhaps I strike nearer the gold with an intimation of a sunny +window-ledge, banked neatly and not too abundantly in geraniums. + +In any event the impression was wholly agreeable. I had to do with a +lady and a lady of no mean degree. The marks of breeding were upon +her, and she spoke with that quiet authority that is the despair of the +vain and vulgar. Her features were small and delicate; her ringless +hands were perfectly formed, and both face and hands belied the age to +which she had so frankly confessed. She was more than twice my age, +and there was not the slightest reason why she should not address me if +it pleased her to do so; and her obsession as to the potency of the +numeral seven was not in itself proof of an ill-balanced mind. I +recalled that my own mother had, throughout her life, imputed all +manner of occult powers and influences to the number thirteen, and I +have myself always been averse to walking beneath a ladder. Musing +thus, I reached the conclusion that this encounter was very likely the +sort of thing that happened to patrons of the Asolando. My time has, +however, a certain value, and I began to wonder just how I should +escape. I was about to excuse myself when my companion suddenly put +down her cup and addressed me with a directness that seemed habitual in +her. + +"I have formed an excellent opinion of your bringing up from the manner +in which you have suffered my advances, if I may so call them. You act +and speak like a gentleman of education. I imagine from your being in +this strange place that you may be a water-colorist or a designer of +_l'art-nouveau_ wall-papers, though I trust for your own sake that I am +mistaken. Or it may be that you are a magazine poet, though when I +tell you that I read no poets but Isaiah and Walt Whitman, you will +understand that mere verse does not attract me. All this"--and she +indicated the mottoes on the wall with a slight movement of the +head--"is the sheerest rubbish, a form of disease. Will you kindly +tell me the nature of your occupation?" + +I produced one of my professional cards. + + +-----------------------------+ + | | + | ARNOLD AMES | + | | + | CONSULTANT IN CHIMNEYS | + | Suite 92, Landon Building | + | | + +-----------------------------+ + +She read it aloud without glasses and mused a moment. + +"This is very curious," she remarked, placing my card in a silver case +she drew from her pocket. "This is very curious indeed. It was only +yesterday that my friend General Glendenning was speaking of you. He +told me that you had rendered him the greatest service in adjusting +several flues in his country house at Shinnecock. My own fireplaces +doubtless require attention, and you may consider yourself retained. I +shall make an early appointment with you. You will find my name and +residence sufficiently described on this card." + + +-----------------------------+ + | | + | _Miss Hollister_ | + | | + | HOPEFIELD MANOR | + | | + +-----------------------------+ +"Oh!" I exclaimed, bowing. "Any further introduction is unnecessary, +Miss Hollister." + +"The name is familiar? I recall that General Glendenning mentioned +that you were related to the Ames family of Hartford, and your mother +was a Farquhar of Charlottesville, Virginia. If you bear your father's +name, I dare say it was he whom I met ten years ago in Paris. There is +no reason, therefore, why we should not be the best of friends." + +She continued to talk as she drew on her gloves, and I saw, as her eyes +rested on mine from time to time during this process, that they were +the most kindly and humorous eyes in the world. Her face was scarcely +wrinkled, but the hair that showed under the small plain hat was evenly +and beautifully gray. It was a kind fate indeed that had led me back +to the Asolando, and introduced me to the aunt of Wiggins's inamorata. + +It may well be believed that I was immediately interested, attentive, +absorbed. As she smoothed her gloves, Miss Hollister continued to +speak in a low musical voice that was devoid of any of the quavers of +age. + +"On the day I reached my sixtieth year, Mr. Ames, I decided that my +humdrum life must cease. The strictest conventions had guided me from +earliest childhood. My experience of life had been limited to those +things which women of education and means enjoy--or suffer, as you +please to take it. I resolved that for the years that remained to me I +should seek to enjoy myself after my own fashion. To sit in the +inglenook and knit, with no human companionship but sick kittens, with +dull monotony broken only by visits from dutiful clergymen in pursuit +of alms for foreign missions, was not for me. Two years ago I +chartered a yacht and cruised among the Lesser Antilles, enjoying many +adventures. Later I crossed the Andes; and I have just returned from +Switzerland, where I accomplished some of the most difficult ascents. +I have a clipping bureau engaged to inform me of all rumors of hidden +treasure and sunken ships, and I hope that of this something may come, +as I retain a marine engineer and corps of divers and can leave at an +hour's notice for any likely hunting-ground. This may strike you as +the most whimsical self-indulgence. Tell me candidly whether my +remarks so affect you." + +"If it were not that your benefactions of all kinds have given you +noble eminence among American philanthropists, I might be less biased +in favor of the sort of thing you describe; but your gifts to +orphanages, colleges, hospitals"-- + +"Ah!" she interrupted; "enough of that. Philanthropy in these times is +only selfish exploitation, the recreation of the conscience-stricken. +But you see no reason why," she pursued eagerly, "if I wished to dig up +the Caribbean Sea in search of Spanish doubloons, I should not do so? +Answer me frankly, without the slightest fear." + +"I assure you, Miss Hollister, that such projects appeal to me +strongly. I have often lamented that my own lot fell in these +eventless times. As an architect I proved something of a failure; as a +chimney-doctor I lead a useful life, but the very usefulness of it +bores me. And besides, many people take me for a sweep." + +"I dare say they do, for unfortunately many people are fools. But I am +bent upon adventure. It has dawned upon me that every day has its +possibilities, that the right turn at any corner may bring me face to +face with the most stirring encounters. My age protects me where youth +must timidly turn back. My physician pronounces me good for ten years +more of active life, and I intend to keep amused. If I were a young +man like you, I should crawl through chimneys no more, but take to the +open road. I resent the harsh clang of these meaningless years. As I +walked among the hills that lie behind the Manor this morning I heard +the bugles calling. Out there in the Avenue at this hour there are +miles of fat dowagers in padded broughams who think of nothing but +clothes and food. And speaking of food," she continued, with a droll +turn, "I am convinced that the caviare in that sandwich was never +nearer Russia than Casco Bay." + +She drew out her watch, and noting the hour, concluded:-- + +"Clearly we have much in common. I should like to ask you further as +to your unusual profession, but errands summon me elsewhere. However, +something tells me we shall meet again." + +She rose in her swift bird-like fashion and passed lightly down the +room and through the door. She had left a dollar beside her plate to +pay her check, which I noted called for only forty cents. I glanced at +the cashier's desk. The aureoled head had not reappeared; but +immediately I heard a voice murmuring beside me. I had believed myself +alone, and in my surprise I thought some wizardry had made audible one +of the verses on the wall. + + "What of Rafael's sonnets, Dante's picture"-- + + +It was she whose aureoled head I had marked earlier in the receipt of +custom, the girl who had vanished as Miss Hollister appeared. She wore +the snowy vestments of the other attending vestals, with the difference +that the cap that crowned the waitresses was omitted in her case. This +I took to be the Asolando's tribute to her adorable head, which clearly +did not need the electric light or other adventitious aid to invoke its +lovely glow. The line she had spoken hung goldenly upon the air. She +was not tall, and her eyes, I saw, were brown. She had clearly not +climbed far the stairway of her years, but her serenity was the least +bit disconcerting. + +"Pardon me," I began, "but I am an ignorant Philistine, and cannot cap +the verse you have quoted." + +"There is no reason why you should do so. It is the rule of the +Asolando that we shall attract the attention of customers when +necessary by speaking a line of verse. We are not allowed to open a +conversation, no matter how imperative, with 'Listen,' or the even more +vulgar 'Say.'" + +"A capital idea, of which I heartily approve, but now that I am a +waiting auditor, eager"-- + +"It's merely the check, if you please," she interrupted coldly. "My +desk is closed, and the Room will refuse further patrons for the next +hour, as the executive committee of the Shelley Society meets here at +four o'clock and the Asolando is denied to outsiders." + +"This, then, is my dismissal? The lady who joined me here for a time +left a dollar, which, you will see, is somewhat in excess of her check. +My own charge of fifty cents is so moderate that I cannot do less than +leave a dollar also." + +"Thank you," she replied, unshaken by my generosity. "The tips at the +Asolando all go to the Sweetness and Light Club, which is just now +engaged in circulating Matthew Arnold's poems in leaflet form in the +jobbing district." + +"I sympathize with that propaganda," I replied, gathering up my hat and +stick, "and am delighted to contribute to its support. And now I dare +say you would be glad to be rid of me. The Asolando has tolerated me +longer than my slight purchases justified." + +I bowed and had turned away, when she arrested me with the line,-- + + "My good blade carves the casques of men." + + +I turned toward her. Several of the waitresses were now engaged in +rearranging the tables, but they seemed not to heed us. + +"Permit me to inquire," she asked, "whether the lady who joined you +here expressed any interest in the life beautiful as it is exemplified +in the Asolando?" + +"I am constrained to say that she did not. She spoke of the Asolando +in the most contumelious terms." + +The golden head bowed slightly, and a smile hovered about her lips; but +her amusement at my answer was more eloquently stated in her eyes. + +"I must explain that my sole excuse for addressing you is that we are +required to learn, where possible, just why strangers seek the +Asolando." + +"In the case of the lady to whom you refer, it was a matter of this +being the seventh shop from the corner; and my own appearance was due +to the idlest curiosity, inspired by enthusiastic descriptions of the +Asolando's atmosphere and rumors of the cheapness of its food." + +"The reasons are quite ample," was her only comment, and her manner did +not encourage further conversation. + +"May I ask," I persisted, "whether the Asolando's staff is permanent, +and whether, if I return another day." + +"I take it that you do not mean to be impertinent, so I will answer +that my service here is limited to Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. +On the other days Pippa is in the cash-booth. My name at the Asolando +is Francesca." + +"I had guessed it might be Lalage or Chloris," I ventured. + +She shook her head gravely. + +"Kindly write your name in the visitors' book at the door as you pass +out." + +There was no ignoring this hint. I thought she smiled as I left her. + + + + +III + +I FALL INTO A BRIAR PATCH + +Miss Hollister's summons lay on my desk the next morning and was of the +briefest. I was requested to call at Hopefield Manor at four o'clock +the following afternoon, being Thursday. A trap would meet me at +Katonah, and it was suggested that I come prepared to spend the night, +so that the condition of the flues might be discussed and any necessary +changes planned during the evening. The note, signed Octavia +Hollister, was written in a flowing hand, on a wholly impeccable note +sheet stamped Hopefield Manor, Katonah. + +Before taking the train I sought Wiggins by telephone at his office, +and at the Hare and Tortoise, where he lodged, but without learning +anything as to his whereabouts. His office did not answer, but +Wiggins's office had never been responsive to the telephone, so this +was not significant. The more I considered his conduct during the +recital of my visit to the Asolando the more I wondered; and in spite +of my wish to ignore utterly Jewett's revelations as to Wiggins's +summer abroad, I was forced to the conclusion that Jewett had not lied. +I had known Wiggins long, and this was the first time that I had ever +been conscious of any withholding of confidence on his part; and on my +own I had not merely confided all my hopes and aims to him, but I had +leaned upon him often in my perplexities. There was, indeed, a kind of +boyish compact between us, that we should support each other through +all difficulties. This, as I remembered, dated back to our prep +school-days and had been reinforced by a fearsome oath, inspired +doubtless by some dark fiction that had captivated our youthful +imaginations. His failure to tell me of his summer abroad or of his +interest in the Hollisters when I had afforded him so excellent an +opening by my reference to the Asolando emphasized the seriousness of +his plight. His reserve hid, I knew, a diffident and sensitive nature, +and it was wholly possible that if his affair with Cecilia Hollister +had not prospered he had fled to his ranch there to wrestle in +seclusion with his disappointment. My mind was busy with such +speculations as I sped toward Katonah, where I found the trap from +Hopefield Manor awaiting me. + +"It's rather poor going over the hills; about five miles, sir," said +the driver, as we set off. + +This sort of thing was wholly usual in the nature of my vocation. The +flues in country houses seem much more willful and obdurate than those +in town, a fact which I have frequently discussed with architects, and +I had been met in just this way at many stations within a radius of +fifty miles of New York, and carried to houses whose chimneys were +provocative of wrath and indignation in their owners. + +This was the first week in October. There was just zest enough in the +air to make a top coat comfortable. The team of blacks spoke well for +Miss Hollister's stable, and the liveried driver kept them moving +steadily, but eased the pace as we rose on the frequent slopes to the +shoulders of pleasant hills. The immediate neighborhood into which we +were wending was unknown to me, though I saw familiar landmarks. I am +not one to quibble over the efforts of man to supplement the work of +nature, so that I confess without shame that the Croton lakes, to my +cockney eye, merge flawlessly into this landscape. It is not for me to +raise the cry of utilitarianism against these saucerfuls of blue water, +merely because the fluid thus caught and held bubbles and sparkles +later in the taps of the Manhattaners. Early frosts had already +wrought their miracle in the foliage, and the battle-banners of +winter's vanguard flashed along the horizons. I rejoiced that my +business, vexatious enough in many ways, yet afforded me so charming an +outing as this. + +Presently we climbed a hill that shouldered its way well above its +fellows and came out upon a broad ridge, where we entered at once a +noble gateway set in an old stone wall, and struck off smartly along a +fine bit of macadam. The house, the driver informed me, was a quarter +of a mile from the gate. The way led through a wild woodland in which +elms and maples predominated; and before this had grown monotonous we +came abruptly upon an Italian garden, beyond which rose the house. I +knew it at once for one of Pepperton's sound performances; Pepperton is +easily our best man in domestic Tudor, and the whole setting of +Hopefield Manor, the sunken garden, the superb view, the billowing +fields and woodlands beyond, all testified to a taste which no ignorant +owner had thwarted. The house was Tudor, but in no servile sense: it +was also Pepperton. I lifted my eyes with immediate professional +interest to the chimney-pots on the roof. It occurred to me on the +instant that I had never before been called to retouch any of +Pepperton's work. Pep knew as much as I about flue-construction; I had +an immense respect for Pep, and as my specializing in chimneys had been +a subject of frequent chaffing between us, I anticipated with a chuckle +the pleasure I should have later in telling him that at last one of his +flues had required my services. + +My good opinion of Miss Hollister did not diminish as I stepped within +the broad hall. Houses have their own manner of speech, and Hopefield +Manor spoke to all the senses in accents of taste and refinement. A +servant took my bag and ushered me into a charming library. A fire +smouldered lazily in the great fireplace; there was, in the room, the +faintest scent of burnt wood; but the smoke rose in the flue in a +perfectly mannerly fashion, and on thrusting in my hand I felt a good +draught of air. I instinctively knelt on the hearth and peered up, but +saw nothing unworkmanlike: Pepperton was not a fellow to leave obvious +mistakes behind him. But possibly this was not one of the recalcitrant +fireplaces I had been called to inspect; and I rose and was continuing +my enjoyment of the beautiful room, when I became conscious, by rather +curious and mixed processes not wholly of the eye, that a young woman +had drawn back the light portieres--they were dark brown, with borders +of burnt orange--and stood gravely gazing at me. She held the curtains +apart--they made, indeed, a kind of frame for her; but as our eyes met +she advanced at once and spoke my name. + +[Illustration: She held the curtains apart.] + +"You are Mr. Ames. My aunt expected you. I regret to say that she is +not in the house just now, but she will doubtless return for tea. I am +her niece. Won't you sit down?" + +As she found a seat for herself, I made bold to survey her with some +particularity. She carried her fine height with beautiful dignity. +She was a creature of grace, and it was a grace of strength, the +suppleness and ease that mark our later outdoor American woman. She +could do her miles over these hills,--I was sure of that. Her fine +olive face, crowned with dark hair, verified the impression I had +gathered from Jewett, that she was a woman of cultivation. She had +read the poets; Dante and Petrarch spoke from her eyes. Cecilia was no +bad name for her; she suggested heavenly harmonies! And as for +Jewett's story of Wiggins's infatuation, I was content: if this was the +face that had shattered the frowning towers of Wiggins's Ilium and sent +him to brood disconsolate upon his broad acres in Dakota, my heart went +out to him, for his armor had been pierced by arrows worthy of its +metal. + +She was talking, meanwhile, of the day and its buoyant air and of the +tapestries hung in the woodlands, in a voice deep with rare intimations +of viol chords. + +"It's very quiet here. It doesn't seem possible that we are so near +the city. My aunt chose the place with care, and she made no mistake +about it. Yes; the house was built by Mr. Pepperton, but not for us. +My aunt bought it of the estate of the gentleman who built it. This +will be her first winter here." + +She made no reference to the object of my visit, and I wondered if she +knew just how I came there. A man-servant wheeled in a portable +tea-table and placed it beside a particular chair, lighted the lamp +under the kettle, and silently departed. And with the stage thus +disposed Miss Hollister herself appeared. She greeted me without +surprise and much as she might have spoken to any guest in her house. +I had sometimes been treated as though I were the agent of a +decorator's shop, or a delinquent plumber, by the people whom I served; +but Miss Hollister and her niece established me upon a plane that was +wholly social. I was made to feel that it was the most natural thing +in the world for me to be there, having tea, with no business ahead of +me but to be agreeable. The fact that I had come to correct the +distemper of their flues was utterly negligible. I remembered with +satisfaction that I had journeyed from town in a new business suit that +made the best of my attenuated figure, and I will not deny that I felt +at ease. + +Miss Hollister talked briskly as she made the tea. + +"I was over at the kennels when you came. I believe the kennel-master +is a rascal, Cecilia. I have no opinion of him whatever." + +"He was highly recommended," replied the niece. "It's not his fault +that the fox terriers were sick." + +"I dare say it is n't," said the old lady, measuring the tea; "but it's +his fault that he whipped one of those Cuban hounds,--I 'm sure he +whipped her. The poor beast was afraid to crawl out when I called her +this afternoon." + +"We were warned against those dogs, Aunt Octavia; but I must admit that +they have lovely eyes." + +Miss Cecilia's manner toward her aunt left nothing to be desired; it +was wholly deferential and kind, and her dignity, I surmised, was equal +to any emergency that might rise between them. + +"Do you ever shoot behind traps?" demanded Miss Hollister abruptly. + +The question surprised me. I did not shoot behind traps or anywhere +else, for that matter; but it delighted me to find that her unusual +interests, as she had touched upon them at the Asolando, were part of a +consistent scheme of life. She talked of her experiments with +different guns and traps, her arms folded, her eyes reverting +occasionally to the kettle. It was all in the shells, she said. +Before she had begun filling her own cartridges she had no end of +trouble. + +"It is not necessary for you to take tea if you don't care for it, Mr. +Ames," she said, as I rose and handed the first cup to Cecilia. "If +you will touch the bell at your elbow you may have liquids of quite +another sort. It may interest you to know that this temperance wave +that is sweeping the country does not interest me in the least. Our +great Americans of the old times were gentlemen who took their liquor +with no cowardly fear of public censure. You will find my sideboard +well stocked after the fashion of old times; and I have with my own +hand placed in your room a quart of Scotch given me at the distillery +four years ago by its proprietor, Lord Mertondale. A case of like +quality is yours at any moment you choose to press the button at the +head of your bed." + +"You are most generous, Miss Hollister. Tea will suffice for the +moment. It is fitting that I should take it here, it having been a +weakness for tea as well as curiosity and chance that threw me in your +way at the Asolando." + +"That absurd, that preposterous hole in the wall!" + +She put down her cup and faced me, continuing: "Mr. Ames, I will not +deny that if it had not been for General Glendenning's cordial +indorsement of you, and the further fact that I had met your late +father, I should not have invited you to my house on the occasion to +which you refer. My contempt for the Asolando and the things it stands +for is beyond such language as a lady may use before the young." + +I laughed at her earnestness; but on turning toward Miss Cecilia I saw +that she was placidly stirring her cup. It might be that one was not +expected to manifest amusement in Miss Hollister's utterances; and I +was anxious to adjust myself to the proper key in my intercourse, no +matter how brief it might be, with this remarkable old lady. + +In my embarrassment I rose and offered the bread and butter to Cecilia, +who declined it. The austerity of her rejection rather unnerved me. + +"To think, that with all the opportunities for adventure that offer in +this day and generation, any one should waste time on the idiotic +worship of a lot of silly moulders of literary patisserie! It is +beyond me, Mr. Ames, and when I recall that your late father commanded +a cavalry regiment in the Civil War, I fall back upon the privilege of +my age to beg that you will hereafter give the Asolando a wide berth." + +"I assure you, Miss Hollister, that I have no wish to become an habitue +of the place. And yet you will pardon me if I repeat that, but for it, +I should not now be enjoying the hospitality of Hopefield Manor." + +She lifted her head from her cup and bowed; but I was immediately +interested in the fact that her niece was speaking. + +"I think Aunt Octavia is hard on the Asolando," she was saying. "Aunt +Octavia is interested in the revival of romance, and romance without +poetry seems to me wholly impossible. The Asolando makes no +pretensions to be more than an incident in a real movement whose aim is +the diffusion of poetic fire,--it is merely a shrine where the divine +lamp is never allowed to fail or falter." + +"And if, Cecilia Hollister, you think that sandwiches named for +Browning's poems or macaroons dedicated to Walter Pater can assist +foolish virgins in keeping their lamps filled, I give you the word of +an old woman that you are in danger of a complete loss of your mind. +The age is decadent, and I know no better way of restoring the race to +its ancient vim and energy than by sending men back to the camp and +field or to sail the high seas in new armadas. The men of this age +have become a lot of sordid shopkeepers, and to my moral sense the +looting of cities is far more honorable than the creation of trusts and +the manipulation of prices, though I cannot deny that but for my late +father's zeal in destroying his competitors in the baby-buggy business +we might not now be enjoying the delicate fragrance of caravan tea." + +I continued to flounder in my anxiety to determine just how Miss +Hollister wished to be taken. She spoke with the utmost seriousness +and with the earnestness of deep conviction. If the aims of the +Asolando were absurd, what might be said of the declarations of this +old lady in favor of a return to the age of sword and buckler! + +I again turned to Cecilia, thinking that I should find a twinkle in her +eye that might solve the riddle and make easier my responses to her +aunt's appeals. Her reply did not help me greatly:-- + +"I assure you, Mr. Ames, that the Asolando is a very harmless place, +and that as a matter of fact its aims are wholly consonant with those +of Aunt Octavia. I myself served there for a time, and those were +among the most delightful days of my life." + +"And you might still be handing about the Rossetti eclairs in that +smothery little place if I had not rescued you from your bondage. I +assure you, Mr. Ames, that my niece is a perfectly healthy young woman, +to whom all such rubbish is really abhorrent." + +I expected Miss Cecilia to rouse at this; but she ignored her aunt's +fling, saying merely,-- + +"There are times when I miss the Asolando." + +"Mr. Ames," began Miss Octavia presently in her crisp, direct fashion, +which had the effect of leading me, in my anxiety to appear ready with +answers, to take a flattering view of my own courage and +resourcefulness,--"Mr. Ames, are you equal to the feat of swimming a +moat under a shattering fire from the castle?" + +"I have every reason to think I am, Miss Hollister," I replied modestly. + +"And if a white hand waved to you from the grilled window of the lonely +tower, would you ride on indifferently or pause and thunder at the +gate?" + +"White hands have never waved to me, save occasionally when I have gone +a-riding in the Sixth Avenue elevated, but it is my honest belief that +my sword would promptly leave its scabbard if the hand ever waved from +the ivied tower." + +She nodded her pleasure in this avowal. For a chimney-doctor I was +doing well. In fact, as I submitted to Miss Octavia's examination, I +felt equal to charging a brigade single-handed. Something about the +woman made it possible and pleasant to be absurd. + +"If a king or an emperor of Europe should ask you to inspect his +chimneys, would you be content to perform your service in the most +expeditious and professional manner and depart with a nominal fee?" + +"Decidedly not, Miss Hollister. On the other hand I should nurse the +job for all it was worth, plunder the public treasury, explore the +dungeons, make love to the princesses, and free the rightful heir to +the throne from his cell beneath the bosom of the lake." + +My friends at the Hare and Tortoise would have heard this avowal with +some surprise, for no man's life had ever been tamer than mine. I am +by nature timid, and fall but a little short of being afraid of the +dark. Prayers for deliverance from battle, murder, and sudden death +cannot be too strongly expressed for me. My answer had, however, +pleased Miss Octavia, and she clapped her hands with pleasure. + +"Cecilia," she cried, "something told me, that afternoon at the +Asolando, that my belief in the potential seven was not ill-placed, and +now you see that in introducing myself to Mr. Ames at the seventh table +from the door, in the seventh shop from Fifth Avenue, I was led to a +meeting with a gentleman I had been predestined to know." + +As we talked further, a servant appeared and laid fresh logs across the +still-smouldering fire. This I thought would suggest to Miss Hollister +the professional character of my visit; but the fire kindled readily, +the smoke rose freely in the flue; and Miss Hollister paid no attention +to it other than to ask the man whether the fuel he had taken from a +carved box at the right of the hearth was apple-wood from the upper +orchard or cherry from a tree which, it appeared, she had felled +herself. It was apple-wood, the man informed her, and she continued +talking. The merits of chain-armor, I think it was, that held us for +half an hour, Cecilia and I listening with respect to what, in my +ignorance, seemed a remarkable fund of knowledge on this recondite +subject. + +"We dine at seven, Mr. Ames, and you may amuse yourself as you like +until that hour. Cecilia, you may order dinner in the gun-room +to-night." + +"Certainly, Aunt Octavia." + +Once more I glanced at the girl, hoping that some glimmer in her eyes +would set me right and establish a common understanding and sympathy +between us; but she was moving out of the room at her aunt's side. The +man who had tended the fire met me in the hall and, conducting me to my +room, suggested various offices that he was ready to perform for my +comfort. The house faced south, and my windows, midway of the east +wing, afforded a fine view of the hills. The room was large enough for +a chamber of state, and its furniture was massive. A four-poster +invited to luxurious repose; half a dozen etchings by famous +artists--Parrish and Van Elten among them--hung upon the walls; and on +a table beside the bed stood a handsome decanter and glasses, +reinforced by the quart of Scotch which Miss Hollister had recommended +for my refreshment. + +My bag had been opened and my things put out, so that, there being more +than an hour to pass before I need dress for dinner, I went below and +explored the garden and wandered off along a winding path that stole +with charming furtiveness toward a venerable orchard of gnarled apple +trees. From the height thus gained I looked down upon the house, and +caught a glimpse beyond it of one of the chain of lakes, on which the +westering sun glinted goldenly. Thus seeing the house from a new +angle, I was impressed as I had not been at first by its size: it was a +huge establishment, and I thought with envy of Pepperton, to whom such +ample commissions were not rare. Pepperton, I recalled a little +bitterly, had arrived; whereas I, who had enjoyed exactly his own +training for the architect's profession, had failed at it and been +obliged to turn my hand to the doctoring of chimneys. But I am not a +morbid person, and it is my way to pluck such joy as I may from the +fleeting moment; and as I reflected upon the odd circumstance of my +being there, my spirits rose. Miss Hollister was beyond question a +singular person, but her whims were amusing. I felt that she was less +cryptic than her niece, and the thought of Cecilia drove me back upon +Jewett's story of Wiggins's interest in that quarter. I resolved to +write to Wiggins when I got back to town the next day and abuse him +roundly for running off without so much as good-bye. That, most +emphatically, was not like dear old Wiggins! + +I had been sitting on a stone wall watching the shadows lengthen. I +rose now and followed the wall toward a highway along which wagons and +an occasional motor-car had passed during my revery. The sloping +pasture was rough and frequently sent me along at a trot. The wall +that marked the boundary at the roadside was hidden by a tangle of +raspberry bushes, and my foot turning on a stone concealed in the wild +grasses, I fell clumsily and rolled a dozen yards into a tangle of the +berry bushes. As I picked myself up I heard voices in the road, but +should have thought nothing of it, had I not seen through a break in +the vines, and almost within reach of my hand, Cecilia Hollister +talking earnestly to some one not yet disclosed. She was hatless, but +had flung a golf-cape over her shoulders. The red scarlet lining of +the hood turned up about her neck made an effective setting for her +noble head. + +"Oh, I can't tell you! I can't help you! I must n't even appear to +give you any advantage. I went into it with my eyes open, and I 'm in +honor bound not to tell you anything. You have said +nothing--nothing,--remember that. There is absolutely nothing between +us." + +"But I must say everything! I refuse to be blinded by these absurd +restrictions, whatever they are. It's not fair,--it's inviting me into +a game where the cards are not all on the table. I 've come to make an +end of it!" + +My hands had suffered by contact with the briars, and I had been +ministering to them with my handkerchief; but I fell back upon the +slope in my astonishment at this colloquy. Cecilia Hollister I had +seen plainly enough, though the man's back had been toward me; but +anywhere on earth I should have known Wiggins's voice. I protest that +it is not my way to become an eavesdropper voluntarily, but to disclose +myself now was impossible. If it had not been Wiggins--but Wiggins +would never have understood or forgiven; nor could I have explained +plausibly to Cecilia Hollister that I had not followed her from the +house to spy upon her. I should have made the noise of an invading +army if I had attempted to effect an exit by creeping out through the +windrow of crisp leaves in which I lay; and to turn back and ascend the +slope the way I had come would have been to advertise my presence to +the figures in the road. There seemed nothing for me but to keep still +and hope that this discussion between Cecilia Hollister and Hartley +Wiggins would not be continued within earshot. To my relief they moved +a trifle farther on; but I still heard their voices. + +[Illustration: This discussion between Cecilia Hollister and Hartley +Wiggins.] + +"I cannot listen to you. Now that I 'm committed I cannot honorably +countenance you at all; and I can explain nothing. I came here to meet +you only to tell you this. You must go--please! And do not attempt to +see me in this way again." + +I was grateful that Wiggins's voice sank so low in his reply that I did +not hear it; but I knew that he was pleading hard. Then a motor +flashed by, and when the whir of its passing had ceased, the voices +were inaudible; but a moment later I heard a light quick step beyond +the wall, and Cecilia passed hurriedly, her face turned toward the +house. The cape was drawn tightly about her shoulders, and she walked +with her head bowed. + +I breathed a sigh of relief, and when I felt safe from detection +climbed the slope. + +Pausing on the crest to survey the landscape, I saw a man, wearing a +derby hat and a light top-coat, leaning against a fence that inclosed a +pasture. As I glanced in his direction he moved away hastily toward +the road below. The feeling of being watched is not agreeable, and I +could not account for him. As he passed out of sight, still another +man appeared, emerging from a strip of woodland farther on. Even +through the evening haze I should have said that he was a gentleman. +The two men apparently bore no relation to each other, though they were +walking in the same direction, bound, I judged, for the highway below. +I had an uncomfortable feeling that they had both been observing me, +though for what purpose I could not imagine. Then once more, just as I +was about to enter the Italian garden from a fallow field that hung +slightly above it, a third man appeared as mysteriously as though he +had sprung from the ground, and ran at a sharp dog-trot along the +fence, headed, like the others, for the road. In the third instance +the stranger undoubtedly took pains to hide his face, but he, too, was +well dressed and wore a top-coat and a fedora hat of current style. + +I did not know why these gentlemen were ranging the neighborhood or +what object they had in view; but their several appearances had +interested me, and I went on into the house well satisfied that events +of an unusual character were likely to mark my visit to the home of +Miss Octavia Hollister. + + + + +IV + +WE DINE IN THE GUN-ROOM + +Cecilia sat reading alone when I entered the library shortly before the +dinner-hour. She put down her book and we fell into fitful talk. + +"I took a walk after tea. I always feel that sunsets are best seen +from the fields; you can't quite do them justice from windows," she +began. + +She seemed preoccupied, but this may have been the interpretation of my +conscience, whose twinges reminded me unpleasantly of my precipitation +into the briar bushes at the foot of the pasture, where I had witnessed +her meeting with Wiggins. My admiration gained new levels. Her black +evening gown became her; a band of velvet circled her throat, +emphasizing its firm whiteness. It seemed incredible that I had seen +her so recently, in the filmy dusk, talking with so much earnestness to +Hartley Wiggins. It was my impression, gained from the few sentences I +had overheard by the road, that she did not repulse him, but that some +mysterious, difficult barrier kept them apart. Where, I wondered, was +Wiggins now, and what were to be the further incidents of this singular +affair? + +While we waited for Miss Hollister to appear, she continued to speak of +her joy in the hills. It is not every one who can admire a sunset with +sincerity, but she conveyed the spirit of the phenomena that had +attended the lowering of the bright targe of day in terms and tones +that were delightfully natural and convincing. And yet the far-away +look in her eyes suggested inevitably the scene I had witnessed and the +phrases I had caught by the roadside. Wiggins was in her recollection +of the glowing landscape,--I was confident of this; and poor Wiggins +was even now wandering these hills, no doubt, brooding upon his +troubles under the clear October stars. + +Dinner was announced the moment Miss Hollister entered, and I walked +out between them. Miss Octavia Hollister was a surprising person, but +in nothing was she so delightfully wayward as in the gowns she wore. +My ignorance of such matters is immeasurable, but I fancy that she +designed her own raiment and that her ideas were thereupon carried out +by a tailor of skill. At the Asolando and when we had met at tea in +her own house, she had worn the severest of tailored gowns, with short +skirt and a coat into whose pockets she was fond of thrusting her +hands. To-night the material was lavender silk trimmed in white, but +the skirt had not lengthened, and over a white silk waist she wore a +kind of cut-away coat that matched the skirt. An aigrette in her +lovely white hair contributed a piquant note to the whole impression. +As we passed down the hall she talked with great animation of the Hague +Tribunal, just then holding a prominent place in the newspapers for +some reason that has escaped me. + +"The whole thing is absurd; perfectly absurd! I know of nothing that +would contribute more to human enjoyment than a real war between +Germany and England. The Hague idea is pure sentimentalism,--if +sentimentalism can ever be said to be pure. I will go further and say +that I consider it positively immoral." + +This new view of the matter left me stammering. Cecilia, I saw, had no +intention of helping me over these difficult hurdles that were +constantly popping up in my conversations with her aunt. This +delightful old lady in lavender, the mistress of a house whose luxury +and peace were antipodal to any hint of war, continued to baffle me. +She had ordered dinner in the gun-room, but I thought this merely a +turn of her humor; and I was taken aback when she led the way into a +low, heavily raftered room, where electric sconces of an odd type were +thrust at irregular intervals along the walls, which were otherwise +hung with arms of many sorts in orderly combinations. They were not +the litter of antique shops, I saw in a hasty glance, but rifles and +guns of the latest patterns, and beside the sideboard stood a gun-rack +and a cabinet which I assumed contained still other and perhaps +deadlier weapons. At one end of the room, and just behind Miss +Hollister, was a sunburst of swords, which gleamed with a kind of +mockery behind her white head. + +The small round table was conventionally set, but this only added to +the grimness of the encompassing arsenal. A bowl of crimson roses in +the centre of the snowy cloth would ordinarily have mitigated the +effect of the grim walls; but I confess that the color reminded me a +little too sombrely of the ugly business for which this steel had been +designed. But for the presence of Miss Cecilia, who was essentially +typical of our twentieth-century American woman, I think I might +readily have yielded to the illusion that I was the guest of some +eccentric chatelaine who had invited me to dine with her in a bastion +of her fortress before ordering me to some chamber of horrors for +execution. + +There seemed to be no reason why one of those keen blades on the wall +might not find its way through my ribs between a highly satisfactory +plate of _potage a la tortue_ and a bit of sea-bass that would have +honored any kitchen in the land. No reference was made to the +character of the room; I felt, in fact, that Cecilia rather pleaded +with her eyes that I should make no reference to it. And Miss +Hollister remarked quite casually as though in comment upon my +thoughts:-- + +"Consistency has buried its thousands and habit its tens of thousands. +We should live, Mr. Ames, for the changes and chances of this troubled +life. Between an opera-box and a villa at Newport many of my best +friends have perished." + +"I have thought myself that Thoreau had the right idea,"--I began +hopefully; but she raised her finger warningly. + +"Mr. Ames, the mention of Henry David Thoreau is wholly distasteful to +me. A man who will deliberately choose to whittle lead-pencils for +chipmunks and write a book about a moist sand-pile like Cape Cod +arouses no sympathy in me. And these well-meaning women who are +forever gathering autumn leaves, or who tire you in spring by telling +you they have found the first pussy-willow feathering, and who make all +Nature odious by their general goo-gooings, bore me to death. There is +no such thing possible as the simple life. I give you my word for it +that it is only in the most complex existence that the spirit of man +can thrive." + +I am only a chimney-doctor; I have never been able to make any headway +in discussing things aesthetic, sentimental or spiritual with persons of +sound conviction in such matters. A bishop with whom I once roamed the +English cathedrals confessed to me his sincere belief that in the days +of the inquisition the gridiron would have been my rightful portion. I +was fearful lest my hostess should suggest the mediaeval church as a +topic, and this I knew would be disastrous. As an abbess she would, I +fancied, have ruled with an iron hand. But with startling abruptness +she put down her fork, and bending her wonderfully direct gaze upon me, +asked a question that caused me to strangle on a bit of asparagus. + +"I imagine, Mr. Ames, that you are a member of some of the better clubs +in town. If by any chance you belong to the Hare and Tortoise,--the +name of which has always pleased me,--do you by any chance happen to +enjoy the acquaintance of Mr. Hartley Wiggins?" + +Cecilia lifted her head. I saw that she had been as startled as I. It +crossed my mind that a denial of any acquaintance with Wiggins might +best serve him in the circumstances; but I am not, I hope, without a +sense of shame, and I responded promptly:-- + +"Yes, I know him well. We are old friends. I always see a good deal +of him during the winter. His summers are spent usually on his ranch +in the west. We dined together two days ago at the Hare and Tortoise, +just before he left for the west." + +"You will pardon me if I say that it is wholly to his credit that he +has forsworn the professions and identified himself with the honorable +calling of the husbandman." + +"We met Mr. Wiggins while traveling abroad last summer," interposed +Cecilia, meeting my eyes quite frankly. + +"Met him! Did you say met him, Cecilia? On the contrary we found him +waiting for us at the dock the morning we sailed," corrected Miss +Hollister, "and we never lost him a day in three months of rapid +travel. I had never met him before, but I cannot deny that he made +himself exceedingly agreeable. If, as I suspected, he had deliberately +planned to travel on the same steamer with my two nieces, I have only +praise for his conduct, for in these days, Mr. Ames, it warms my heart +to find young men showing something of the old chivalric ardor in their +affairs of the heart." + +"I 'm sure Mr. Wiggins made himself very agreeable," remarked Cecilia +colorlessly. + +"For myself," retorted Miss Hollister, "I should speak even more +strongly. He repeatedly served us with tact and delicacy; and I recall +with the greatest satisfaction his vigorous chastisement of our courier +in Cologne, where that person was found to have treated us in the most +treacherous manner. He had, in fact, in collusion with an inn-keeper, +connived at the loss of our baggage to delay our departure, even after +I had pronounced the cathedral the greatest architectural monstrosity +in Europe." + +"Oh, Aunt Octavia, you didn't really mean that!" And Cecilia laughed +for the first time. Her color had risen, and her dark eyes lit with +pleasure. + +"I had formed so high an opinion of Mr. Wiggins," Miss Octavia +continued, "that I learned with sincerest regret that his ancestors +were Tories and took no part in the struggle for American independence. +There are times when I seriously question the wisdom of the colonists +in breaking with the mother country; but certainly no man of character +in that day could have hesitated as to his proper course." + +Then, as though by intention, Miss Hollister dropped upon the smooth +current of our talk a sentence that drove the color from Cecilia's +face. At once the girl was cold again, and I felt embarrassed and +uncomfortable that a friend of mine had been brought into the +conversation to my befuddlement. The situation was trying, but in +spite of this it grew steadily more interesting. + +"Hezekiah and Mr. Wiggins were the best of friends," was Miss +Hollister's remark. + +Cecilia's eyes were on her plate; but her aunt went on in her blithest +fashion:-- + +"You may not know that Hezekiah is another niece, Cecilia's sister. +She was named, at my suggestion, for my father, there being no son in +the family, and I trust that so unusual a name in a young girl does not +strike you as indefensible." + +"On the contrary, it seems to me wholly refreshing and delightful. As +I recall the Sunday-school of my youth, Hezekiah was a monarch of great +authority, whose animosity toward Sennacherib was justified in the +fullest degree. The very name bristles with spears, and is musical +with the trumpets of Israel. Nothing would make me happier than to +meet the young lady who bears this illustrious name." + +"As to your knowledge of ancient history, Mr. Ames," began Miss +Hollister, as she helped herself to the cheese,--sweets, I noted, were +not included in the very ample meal I had enjoyed,--"it is clear that +you were well taught in your youth. I am not surprised, however, for I +should have expected nothing less of a son of the late General Ames of +Hartford. As to meeting my niece Hezekiah, I fear that that is at +present impossible. While Cecilia remains with me, Hezekiah's duty is +to her father, and I must say in all kindness that Hezekiah's ways, +like those of Providence and the custom-house, are beyond my feeble +understanding. In a word, Mr. Ames, Hezekiah is different." + +"Hezekiah," added Cecilia with feeling, "is a dear." + +"Please don't bring sentimentalism to the table!" cried Miss Hollister. +"Mr. Wiggins once informed me in a moment of forgetfulness,--it was at +Fontainebleau, I remember, when Hezekiah persisted in reminding a +one-armed French colonel who was hanging about that we named cities in +America for Bismarck,--it was there at the inn, that Mr. Wiggins +confided to me his belief that Hezekiah bears a strong resemblance to +the common or domestic peach. As a single peach at that place was +charged in the bill at ten francs, the remark was ill-timed, to say the +least. But Mr. Wiggins was so contrite when I rebuked him, that I +allowed him to pay for our luncheon,--no small matter, indeed, for +Hezekiah's appetite is nothing if not robust." + +The table-talk had yielded little light on the subject of Wiggins's +predicament, whatever that might be; but these references to the absent +Hezekiah had set a troop of interrogation points to dancing on the +frontiers of my curiosity. Miss Hollister had given so many turns to +the conversation that I could reach no conclusion as to her feeling +toward Wiggins or Hezekiah Hollister; and as for Cecilia, I was unable +to determine whether she was a prisoner at Hopefield Manor or the +willing and devoted companion of her aunt. + +In this bewildered state of mind, while we lingered over our coffee, +the servant appeared with a card for each of the ladies. I saw Cecilia +start as she read the name. + +"Mr. Wiggins! How remarkable that he should have appeared just as we +were speaking of him," said Miss Hollister. "Be sure the gentleman is +comfortable in the library, James. We shall be in at once. Mr. Ames, +you will of course be delighted to meet your friend here, and you will +assist us in dispensing our meagre hospitality." + + + + +V + +THE STRANGE BEHAVIOR OF A CHIMNEY + +There was no reason in the world why Hartley Wiggins should not call +upon two ladies living in Westchester County, and I must say that he +appeared to advantage in Miss Hollister's library. + +He had got into his evening clothes somewhere, perhaps at a neighboring +inn, or maybe at the house of a friend; for he could not possibly have +motored into town and back since his interview with Cecilia in the +highway. He had impressed the clerk at the Hare and Tortoise with the +idea that he had left New York for a long absence, and he had +apparently camped at the gates of Hopefield to be near Cecilia. + +When he had paid his compliments to the ladies, he turned to me with an +almost imperceptible lifting of the brows; but he was cordial enough. +If he was surprised or disappointed at seeing me, his manner did not +betray the feeling. + +"Glad to see you, Ames. Rather nice weather, this." + +"Even Dakota could n't do better," I affirmed with a grin; but he +ignored the fling. + +"It is quite remarkable, Mr. Wiggins, that you should have appeared +just when you did, for we had been speaking of you, and I had been +telling Mr. Ames of our travels abroad and in particular of the +thumping you very properly gave our courier at Cologne. And I shall +not deny that I mentioned also our brief discussion of the peach-crop +at Fontainebleau." + +Cecilia stirred restlessly; Wiggins shot a glance of inquiry in my +direction; and I felt decidedly ill at ease. Miss Hollister crossed to +the fireplace and poked the logs. + +Just what part Hezekiah Hollister played in the situation was beyond +me. If I had not witnessed Wiggins's clandestine meeting with Cecilia, +matters would have been clearer to my comprehension; but his appearance +at the house, after the colloquy I had overheard from the briar patch, +was in itself inexplicable. Cecilia was a woman, therefore to be +wooed, and yet she had indicated by her words to him that the wooing, +independently of her feeling and inclination, might not go forward with +entire freedom. Miss Hollister's singular references to Hezekiah--a +person about whom my curiosity was now a good deal aroused--added to +the mystery that enfolded the library. + +"Our American peaches are not what they were in my youth. Cold storage +destroys the flavor. I have not tasted a decent peach for twenty +years." + +This was pretty tame, I admit; but I felt that I must say something. +Responsive to Miss Hollister's energetic prodding, the flames in the +fireplace leaped into the great throat of the chimney with a roar. She +turned, her back to the blaze, and looked upon her guests benignantly. + +"If all your flues draw like that one, they are not seriously in need +of doctoring," I remarked, feeling that flues were a safer topic than +the peach-crop. + +"Flues are nothing if not erratic," replied Miss Hollister. The +subject did not appear to interest her; nor had she, by the remotest +suggestion, referred to the object of my coming. I had sniffed vainly +in the halls above and below for any trace of the stale smoke which +usually greeted me at once on my arrival at the house of a client. The +air of Hopefield Manor was as sweet as that of a June meadow. Wiggins +remarked to me that I doubtless knew the Manor had been designed by +Pepperton, whom we both knew well. + +"This is Pep's masterpiece. He need do nothing better to keep his grip +at the top," he said. + +"I consider it a great privilege to be permitted to visit a house +designed by a dear friend and occupied by a lady peculiarly fitted to +appreciate and adorn it." + +I thought rather well of this as I spoke the words; but neither Cecilia +nor Wiggins rose to it as I hoped they might. + +"You have a neat turn for the direct compliment," said Miss Hollister +promptly. "The house was built, you may not know, for a manufacturer +of umbrellas, who died before he had occupied it, in circumstances I +may later disclose to you; which accounts, Mr. Ames, for that figure of +Cupid under a pink parasol on the drawing-room ceiling. At the first +opportunity I shall remove it, as baby Cupids are irreconcilable with +the militant love-making I admire. I consider umbrellas detestable, +and never carry one when I can command a mackintosh." + +"When I 'm on the ranch I wear a slicker," said Wiggins. "It's +bullet-proof, and that I have found at times a decided advantage." + +We discussed mackintoshes for at least ten minutes, with far more +sprightliness than I had imagined the subject could evoke. Then Miss +Hollister, after a turn up and down the room, paused beside me. + +"Mr. Ames," she said, "would you care to join me in a game of +billiards? I 'm not in my best form, but I think we might profitably +knock the balls for half an hour." + +I acquiesced with alacrity. I assumed it to be Miss Hollister's +purpose to leave Cecilia and Wiggins alone. I should be rendering +Wiggins and Cecilia a service by withdrawing, and I was glad of a +chance to escape. + +To my infinite surprise they both protested, not in mere polite murmurs +but with considerable vehemence. + +"It's quite cool to-night, and I don't believe you ought to use the +billiard-room until the plumber has fixed the radiator," said Cecilia. + +"And if you knew Mr. Ames's game I 'm sure you would n't care to waste +time on him," piped Wiggins, whom I had frequently vanquished in +billiard bouts at the Hare and Tortoise, where, I may say modestly, I +had long been considered one of the most formidable of the club's +players. + +Both he and Cecilia had risen, and we stood, I remember, just before +the hearth, during this exchange. At this moment, a singular thing +happened. The fire that had been sweeping in a broad wave-like curve +into the chimney was checked suddenly. I had repeatedly marked the +admirable draught, the facile grace of the flame as it rose and +vanished. The cessation of the draught was unmarked by any of those +premonitory symptoms by which a fire usually gives warning of evil +intentions. The upward current of air had ceased utterly and without +apparent cause. We were all aware of a choking, a gasping in the deep +flue, which could not be accounted for by any natural stoppage incident +to chimneys--the dislodging of masonry, or a packing of soot. The +former was hardly possible and the house was not old enough to make the +latter theory plausible. From my survey of the flue on my arrival in +the afternoon, I judged that this particular chimney had been little +used. + +The smoke now rolled out in billows and drove us back from the hearth. +I seized the tongs and poker and began readjusting the logs, without, +however, any hope of correcting a difficulty that lay patently in the +upper regions of the flue itself. The smoke, after a courageous effort +to rise, encountered an obstruction of some sort and ebbed back upon +the hearth and out into the room. My efforts to stop the trouble by +shifting the logs were futile, as I expected them to be, and I +retreated quickly, making, I fear, no very gallant appearance as I +mopped my face and eyes. + +[Illustration: I seized the tongs and poker and began readjusting the +logs.] + +"Well," exclaimed Miss Hollister, who had rung for a servant to open +the doors and windows, "this is certainly most extraordinary. What +solution do you offer, Mr. Ames?" + +"The matter requires investigation. I can't venture an opinion until I +have made a thorough investigation. The night is perfectly quiet and +the wind is hardly responsible. I think we had better abandon the room +until I can solve this riddle in the morning." + +The prompt opening of the windows and doors caused the slow dispersion +of the smoke, but the lights in the room still shone dimly as through a +fog. + +"It's beastly," ejaculated Wiggins, coughing. "I did n't suppose +Pepperton would put a flue like that into a house. He ought to be +shot." + +"It is fortunate," said Miss Hollister, "that Mr. Ames is on the +ground. He now has a case that will test his most acute powers of +diagnosis." + +The logs that had burned so brightly before the chimney choked still +held their flames stubbornly, and I had advised against pouring water +upon them, fearing to crack the brick and stonework. We were about to +adjourn to the drawing-room; Miss Hollister and the others had in fact +reached the door, leaving me alone before the hearth. Then, as I stood +half-blinded watching the smoke pour out into the room, and more +puzzled than I had ever been before in any of my employments, the +chimney, with a deep intake of breath, began drawing the smoke upward +again; the flames caught and spread with renewed ardor; and when the +trio still loitering in the hall returned in answer to my exclamation +of surprise, the flue had recovered its composure and was behaving in a +sane and normal manner. + +There is, I imagine, nothing pertaining to the life of man (unless it +be rival climates, motor-cars or pianos) that so inspires incompetent, +irrelevant and immaterial criticism as wayward fireplaces. It is part +of my business to listen respectfully to opinions, to receive with an +appearance of credulity the theories of others; and those advanced in +Miss Hollister's library were not below the average to which I was +accustomed. + +"A swallow undoubtedly fell into the chimney-pot and then got itself +out again," suggested Cecilia. + +"The logs must have been wet. The sap had n't dried out yet," proposed +Wiggins. + +"The wood was as dry as tinder," averred Miss Hollister, not without +irritation. "And one swallow does not make a summer or a chimney +smoke. It must have been a changing current of air. I was reading a +book on ballooning the other day, and it is remarkable how the air +currents change." + +"That is quite possible, as the air cools rapidly after sunset at this +season, and that is bound to have an effect on the quality and +resistance of the atmosphere," I replied sagely. + +"Perhaps," suggested Miss Hollister, with one of those flashes of +animation that were so delightful in her, "perhaps it was a ghost! +Will you tell us, Mr. Ames, whether in your experience you have ever +known a chimney ghost?" + +As I had no opinion of my own as to what had caused the chimney's brief +aberration, I was glad to follow Miss Hollister's lead. + +"I have had several experiences with ghosts," I began, "though I should +not like you to think that I profess any special genius for the +analysis of psychical phenomena. But there was a house at Shinnecock +that was reputed to be haunted. The living-room chimney behaved +damnably. The house was one of Buffington's. Buffington, you know, +was quite capable of building a house and omitting any stairway. We +used to say at the club that he ought to have specialized in +fire-engine houses, where the men don't use stairways but slide down a +pole. Well, the living-room chimney in this particular house could n't +be made to draw with a team of elephants, and it had also the +reputation of being haunted. Strange flutings of the weirdest and most +distressing kind were often heard at night. The owner gave up in +despair and moved out, turning the house over to me. After eliminating +all other possibilities, I decided that the piping spook must be +related to the disorder in the chimney. It served two fireplaces, and +I proceeded to knock the kinks out of it so it did n't tie knots in a +plumb-line as at first; but, believe me, when it stopped smoking it +still whistled, in the most fantastical fashion. I was living in the +house, with only the servants about, and for a week gave my whole +thought to this flue. The ghostly flutist was an amateur, but he tried +his hand at every sort of tune, from 'Sally in our Alley' to the jewel +song in Faust. The whistling did n't begin till nearly midnight, and +continued usually for about an hour. I tried in every way to lure him +into the open, and I fell downstairs one night as I crept about in the +dark trying to trace the sound. And to what palpable and mundane +source do you suppose I traced that ghost?" + +"I never should guess," murmured Cecilia, "unless it was merely the +weird whistling of the wind." + +"Nothing so poetical, I'm sorry to confess. It was the butler! In his +nightly cups his soul inclined to music, and being a timid soul, +fearful of the cynical tongues of the other servants, he crawled into +the ash-dump in the cellar, which communicated with the several +fireplaces above, and there indulged himself gently upon the tuneful +reed. The night I caught him he was breathing the wild strains of +Brunhilde's Battle-Cry into the tube, and it was shuddersome, I can +tell you! I took it upon myself to discharge him on the spot, and the +grateful owner returned the next day." + +"The presence of a ghost in this house would give me the greatest +pleasure," declared Miss Hollister, who had listened intently to my +recital. "I should look upon a ghost's appearance at Hopefield Manor +as a great compliment. If any reputable, decent ghost should by any +chance take up his residence in this house, I should give him every +encouragement." + +Miss Hollister seemed to have forgotten the proposed game of billiards. +The chimney's lawless demonstration had, in fact, given a new turn to +the evening. We discussed ghosts for half an hour, and then, without +having enjoyed any opportunity for a single private word with Cecilia, +Wiggins rose to leave. He shook hands all around and bowed from the +door. It was in my mind to follow, making a pretext of walking with +him to the station or of helping him find his car; but nothing in his +good-night to me encouraged such attentions, and as I pondered, the +outer door closed upon my irresolution. + +At the stroke of ten Miss Hollister rose and excused herself. "We +breakfast at eight, Mr. Ames. I trust the hour does not conflict with +your habits." + +I assured her that the hour was wholly agreeable, and she gave me her +hand with great dignity. + +When I turned toward Cecilia she had moved to a seat close by the +hearth and was gazing dreamily into the fire, now a bed of glowing +coals. + +"It was odd," I remarked. + +"You mean the chimney?" + +"Yes. It was quite unaccountable. I confess that I never knew a +chimney's mood to change so abruptly." + +She sat silent for several minutes, and then she lifted her head and +her eyes met mine. + +"Pardon me, Mr. Ames, but did my aunt ask you here to examine the +chimneys? I did n't quite understand. We have been here only a week; +the weather has been warm, and I believe this fire had not been lighted +before to-day. You will pardon my frankness, but I can't quite +understand why my aunt invited you here if you came professionally. I +thought when you appeared this afternoon that you were a guest--nothing +more--or less." + +"You had heard nothing of any trouble with the fireplaces? Then I am +in the dark as much as you. As I understood it, I was called here to +examine the flues; but now that I think of it, she did not say +explicitly that her chimneys were behaving badly, though that was of +course implied. I naturally assumed that she summoned me here in my +professional capacity. I was a stranger to your aunt; she would hardly +have invited me otherwise." + +She turned again to the fire as though referring to it for counsel. +Her perplexity was no greater than my own. It was certainly an +extraordinary experience to be invited to a strange house where my +services had not been needed, and to find that an apparently sound +chimney had begun to smoke at once as though in mockery of my presence. + +"I imagine, however, that your aunt acts a good deal on impulse. Her +asking me here may have been only a whim." + +"Please don't imagine that your coming has not been agreeable to me," +Cecilia protested. "My aunt is quite capable of inviting a stranger to +the house. She met you, I believe, at the Asolando. I hope you +understand that it is only because I am in deep trouble, Mr. Ames, +trouble of the gravest nature, that I have ventured to speak to you in +this way of my aunt, for whom I have all respect and affection." + +She had never, I was sure, been lovelier than at this moment. Her eyes +filled, but she lifted her head proudly. Whatever the trouble might be +I was sorry for it on her own account; and if it involved Hartley +Wiggins my sympathy went out to him also. On an impulse I spoke of him. + +"I was surprised to meet Hartley Wiggins here. He 's a dear friend of +mine, you know. I thought he had gone to his ranch. He left the Hare +and Tortoise very abruptly a few nights ago just after we had dined +together. He must be stopping somewhere in the neighborhood." + +"It's quite possible. And there's an inn, you know. I fancy he drove +over from there." + +"I hadn't thought of that; the Prescott Arms, I suppose you mean." + +She nodded, but she was clearly not interested in me, and when I found +myself failing dismally to divert her thoughts to cheerfuller channels, +I rose and bade her good-night. + +The servant who had previously attended me appeared promptly when I +reached my room, bearing a tray, with biscuits and a bottle of ale. He +gave me an envelope addressed in a hand I already knew as Miss +Octavia's, and I opened and read:-- + +"The following I either detest or distrust, so kindly refrain from +mentioning them while you are a guest of Hopefield Manor:-- + + Automobiles. + Mashed Potatoes. + Whiskers. + Chopin's Concerto in E Minor (op. 11). + Bishop's Coadjutor. + Limericks. + Cats. + + OCTAVIA HOLLISTER." + + +I absorbed this with a glass of ale. There were seven items, I noted, +and I had no serious quarrel with her attitude toward any of them; but +just what these matters had to do with me or my presence in her house I +could not determine. She had referred to me in the note as a guest--I +had noted that; and I did know, moreover, that Miss Octavia Hollister +possessed a quaint and delicate humor; and I looked forward with the +pleasantest anticipations to our further meetings. + +Before I slept I threw up my window and stepped out upon a narrow +balcony that afforded a capital view of the fields and woods to the +east. The night was fine, with the sky bright with stars and moon. As +my eyes dropped from the horizon to the near landscape, I saw a man +perched on a knoll in the midst of a corn-field. He stood as rigid as +a sentry on duty, or like a forlorn commander, counting the spears of +his tattered battalions. I was not sure that he saw me, for the +balcony was slightly shadowed, but at any rate, he was sharply outlined +to my vision. His derby hat and overcoat gave him an odd appearance as +he stood brooding above the corn. Then he vanished suddenly, though, +as he retired toward the highway, I followed him for some time by the +shaking and jerking of the corn-stalks. + +I lay awake far into the night, considering the events of the day. Of +these the curious stoppage of the library chimney was the least +interesting. I doubted whether it would ever recur. The love-affair +of Hartley Wiggins was, however, a matter of importance to me, his +friend, and I determined to make every effort to see him the next day +and learn the exact status of his affair with Cecilia Hollister. + + + + +VI + +I DELIVER A MESSAGE + +I was aroused at six o'clock the next morning by the sound of +gun-shots, and springing out of bed I beheld, in an open pasture beyond +the stable-yard, the indomitable Miss Hollister engaged in the pleasing +pastime of breaking clay pigeons with a fowling-piece. Her Swedish +maid stood by with a formidable pad of paper, keeping score. A boy +pulled the trap for her, and she threw up her gun and blazed away with +a practised hand. Her small, slight, tense figure, awaiting the +launching of the target, the quick up-bring of the gun as she sighted, +and the pause, following the firing of the shot, in which she bent +forward rigidly watching the result, were features of a picture which I +would not have missed. My eye could not follow the curving disc in its +flight, but when the shot told, the bursting clay made a little patch +of dust in the air that was plainly visible from where I sat. Beyond +the stable-roofs, on a broad stretch of pasture whose aftermath made a +green field about her, and against a background of the more distant +woods' tapestry, Miss Octavia Hollister was a figure to admire. And I +will write it down here and be done with it, that it has been my good +fortune to know many delightful women, but I have never known one more +interesting or charming than Miss Octavia Hollister. The spirit of +deathless youth was in her heart; and youth's gay pennants fluttered +about her, as the reports of her gun fell cheerily upon the crisp +morning air, a rebuke and a challenge to all indolent souls. + +[Illustration: She threw up her gun and blazed away with a practised +hand.] + +I made myself presentable as quickly as possible and went forth to +report to her. She nodded pleasantly as I greeted her immediately +after she had scored a capital shot. A second gun was produced, and I +saw that it was not without satisfaction that she observed my lack of +prowess. One out of five was the best I could do, whereas she smashed +three with the greatest ease. + +On alternate mornings, she informed me, she shot glass balls with a +rifle, a sport which she declared to be superior to pigeon-shooting in +the severity of its demand upon the nerve and eye. + +"If I had known you would be up so early I should have sent coffee to +your room," she remarked as we walked toward the house. "Very likely +your lack of luck with the birds is attributable entirely to the +impoverished state of your stomach." + +Breakfast was served on a delightful sun-porch that I had not before +seen. Cecilia appeared promptly, having in fact been gathering fall +flowers for some time, I judged, from the considerable armful of +chrysanthemums, asters, dahlias and marigolds, which we found her +arranging for the table. She seemed in excellent spirits, and greeted +us most amiably. + +"I heard the artillery booming and thought an army had descended. It's +a great regret to me, Mr. Ames, that I have never been able to make any +headway at the traps. I suffer from chronic and incurable gun-shyness. +I 'm sorry archery has gone out. I think I might have done better with +the long bow." + +"Pinkle!" exclaimed Miss Hollister disdainfully. "I cured myself of +gun-shyness easily enough by having the gardener follow me about +whenever I took my daily walks, firing a gun at irregular intervals +just behind me. I was threatened with deafness when I began, but the +agitation of my tympanums by the explosions of my gun has corrected the +difficulty. I have mentioned my discovery of this remedy to a +distinguished aurist, and he is preparing a paper on the subject--not, +however, without my permission--which he expects to read shortly before +one of the most learned societies in Europe. Cecilia, the chops are +overdone again; please remind me to speak to the cook about it. If it +were not that he is so expert in detecting spurious steam-mill +corn-meal, which is constantly sold as a substitute for the Boydville +water-ground article, I should discharge him for this. An ill-broiled +chop can do much to shake one's faith in human nature. If I wanted to +eat grilled patent leather I should order it." + +In spite of her sharp observations it was quite clear to me that Miss +Hollister's was the gentlest and sweetest of natures. I fully believed +that her whims were the honest expression of a revolt against the +tedious and conventional, and nothing in my later acquaintance +disturbed this opinion. It was her privilege to do as she liked, and +if she preferred cracking clay saucers with a shot-gun to knitting or +darning stockings or gossiping, it was no one's business. + +The mail arrived and was placed by her plate before we left the table. +She opened first a bulky envelope containing cuttings from a clipping +bureau, and she mused aloud upon these as she read. + +"This persistent story of a sunken galleon off the Bolivian coast +sounds plausible, but I fear it is the work of some bright young +journalist. Our minister in that benighted country does n't take any +stock in it. I had a cable from him yesterday. If he had given the +story credence I should have gone down at once with a steamer and crew +of divers. The imaginative young newspaper men continue romancing, +however; and it costs me five cents a clipping." + +She next opened a letter that roused her to vigorous declamation. + +"Cecilia," she began, "here is a letter from that Mrs. Stanford we met +in Berne. She encloses a card that indicates her wish to be called +Mrs. Appleby now, having, I believe, spent a few months since our +meeting in one of our American States where the marital tie readily +evaporates, and shaken Stanford, whom I have heard spoken of in the +highest terms by persons of character. We live in an era of horseless +carriages, wireless telegraphy, husbandless wives and wifeless +husbands. I have hit upon a formula which I am tempted to utilize +hereafter when I meet husbandless women. When they are introduced I +shall ask:-- + + Shaken, + Or taken? + +signifying in the first instance a loss by way of Nevada, or, in the +second, through the pearlier gates of that Paradise which is the hope +of us all. Mr. Ames, as the butler has gone to sleep in the pantry, +you will kindly pass the salt." + +She had handed Cecilia a number of letters, which the girl opened and +then to my surprise meekly turned over to her aunt. Miss Hollister +surveyed them critically. + +"I thought," she remarked, "that that young Henderson who was so +attentive to you at Madrid was an impostor, and this note settles the +matter. He flirted outrageously with Hezekiah behind your back. He +asks if he may call upon you here. If he were the nephew of Colonel +Abner Henderson of Roanoke, as he represented himself to be, he would +not ask if he might call upon you, but would have appeared at once in +his proper person to pay his addresses. An unchivalrous and wobbly +character, who evidently expects you to make the advances. But such +are the youth of our time. And besides, Cecilia, his stationery leaves +much to be desired. As for these other gentlemen we need not discuss +them. Their actions must speak for them." + +Miss Hollister, having thus dismissed her niece's correspondents, rose +and led the way to the library. Cecilia seemed in no wise depressed by +her aunt's fling at Mr. Henderson, whoever he might be, but threw the +notes upon the flames that blazed merrily in the fireplace. + +I suggested immediately that as I had come to Hopefield Manor to +inspect the flues I should now be about my business; but to my surprise +Miss Hollister evinced no interest whatever in the matter. Her tone +and manner implied that the condition of her chimneys was wholly +negligible. + +"There is no haste, Mr. Ames. I have suffered all my life from the +ill-considered and hurried work of professional men. Even the +clergy--and I have enjoyed the acquaintance of many--are quite reckless +in giving opinions. I once asked the Bishop of Waxahaxie--was it +Waxahaxie, Cecilia, or Tallahassee?--well, it does n't matter +anyhow--whether he honestly believed there are no women angels. He +replied with unusual frankness for one in holy orders that he did n't +know, but added that he was sure there are angel women. Just for that +impertinence I cut in two my subscription to his cathedral +building-fund. When I ask an expert opinion of an educated person I +don't intend to be put off with mere persiflage. And to return to my +chimneys, I beg that you give me the result of your most serious +deliberations. At this hour I ride; Cecilia, will you dress +immediately and accompany me?" + +She disappeared at once and I stared mutely after her. I am by no +means an idler, and this cool indifference to the value of my time +would ordinarily have enraged me; but I believe I laughed, and when I +turned to Cecilia I found her smiling. + +"I 'm glad, Mr. Ames, that you are a person of humor. My aunt's +conduct verifies what I said to you last night--that the flues in this +house have given us no trouble; that they have indeed had little chance +to do so in the short time we have spent here. It is true that this +one acted queerly last night, and I have wondered about its temporary +sulkiness a good deal. It will be well, of course, for you to go over +it, and all the others in the house. It is no joke that my aunt is a +believer in thoroughness, and one of these days, when she is ready to +talk of chimneys, she will subject you to a most rigid examination." + +"One of these days? Why, I have looked at the time-table, and it is my +present intention to take the 12:03 into town. I have appointments at +my office for the afternoon. I assure you, Miss Hollister, that I 'm a +man of engagements, particularly at this season." + +I remembered what Jewett had told me of Fortner, the painter, and his +detention at Newport by Miss Octavia Hollister. I had no intention of +being immured in any such fashion, and I was about to protest further +when Cecilia took a step toward me, and after a glance at the door +spoke in a low tone and with great earnestness. + +"Mr. Ames, I have every reason to believe that you are a gentleman, and +in that confident belief I 'm going to ask a favor of you. You have +said that you know Mr. Hartley Wiggins well." + +"I know no man better. You might not have inferred it from his manner +last night, but he was undoubtedly surprised and embarrassed by my +presence, and did not act quite like himself."' + +"I think I understand the cause of that. If I should ask you to see +him to-day and give him a message for me, could you do so?" + +"It will be an honor to serve you; and a very simple matter, as I +should see him on my own account if he is still in the neighborhood." + +"He is doubtless at the Prescott Arms. My message is a verbal one. +Please urge him not to make any effort to see me, and not to call here +again. But at the same time, as the chimney smoked just as we were +about to be left alone last night, I think--I think"--she hesitated a +moment--"You may say that his interests have not been jeopardized by +his temerity in calling." + +In her pause before concluding this curious commission her eyes +searched mine deeply, and I felt that she had not lightly entrusted me +with this singular errand. Her dark eyes held mine an instant after +she had spoken; then she smiled, and her face showed relief. + +"Ask for anything you want. Aunt Octavia despises motors, so there 's +no car here, but you will find plenty of horses and traps. Order +whatever pleases you. I shall expect to meet you at dinner if not at +luncheon--and so"--she smiled again--"will Aunt Octavia." + +She nodded to me from the door, and I heard her running lightly +upstairs. + +Left to my own devices I rang the bell and ordered the library fire +extinguished and the hearth cleaned. This required a little time; but +the house man obeyed me readily, and soon, clad in my professional +overalls and jumper, I was going carefully over the flue whose behavior +had been so unaccountable the previous night. Guided by the servant I +inspected the three fireplaces in the upper chambers that were served +by flues in this chimney and finally dropped my torch and plumb-line +from the chimney-pot. Never in all my experience had I seen better +flues; but remembering my ghost at Shinnecock, I had the ashes thrown +out of the dump in the cellar and found the chute in perfect order. I +learned by inquiry that the other flues worked perfectly, but I +nevertheless scrutinized them carefully. My freedom of the house +afforded an excellent opportunity for a study of its beautiful +construction. It was modern in every sense, with no dark, mysterious +corners in which goblins might lurk. I prowled about with increasing +admiration for Pepperton, and with a deepening sense of my own failure +in the art which he adorned. + +My professional labors were finished. I was quite ready for Miss +Hollister's most searching inquiries. As for the library flue, I had +decided that a little care in piling the logs in the hearth would +obviate the possibility of any recurrence of the difficulty. And I +thereupon hurried to my room, and after a tub (my vocation encouraged +frequent tubbing) chose from the stable a neat trap for one horse. +Thus equipped I set out to find Wiggins. + +The Prescott Arms is an inn that sprang into being with the advent of +motoring. The tourist is advised of his approach to it by signs swung +at the crossways, and its plaster and timber walls are in plain sight +from one of the excellent state roads. Gasoline and other liquids are +offered there; one may have tea or an ampler meal on short notice; and +a few guests may be lodged in case of necessity. I remembered it well, +having several times found it a haven on motor-flights with friends. +As I drove into the entrance I saw Wiggins pacing the long veranda. He +waved a hand and came out to meet me, and when I had rid myself of the +trap he suggested that we take a walk. + +[Illustration: As I drove into the entrance.] + +His manner was not cordial, and he wore the haggard look of a man on +bad terms with his pillow. I attributed his appearance to +preoccupation with his love-affair. When we had withdrawn a little way +from the inn he turned on me sharply. + +"Well?" he demanded. + +"Well," I laughed. + +"Oh, you needn't take that tone about it! Your being here is something +that requires explanation; and your being _there_"--he flung out his +arm toward Hopefield Manor--"your presence there is not a laughing +matter." + +"My dear Wiggins, I came here in a spirit of friendship, and you treat +me like a pickpocket. I must say that if you had not acted like a clam +the other night at the club, but had told me what was in the wind, we +might not be meeting now like ancient enemies instead of old and +intimate friends." + +He vouchsafed no reply, but threw himself down under a scarlet maple +and began to whittle a stick, while I went on with my story. + +"I met Miss Octavia Hollister in the Asolando the day after our last +dinner at the club. I had dropped into the tea-room merely to look at +the place again. I had never seen her before in all my life. She is a +whimsical old lady--but a lady, you must admit that--and we exchanged +cards. On learning my occupation she at once declared that I must come +up here to look at her chimneys. She made an appointment by mail for +yesterday afternoon. It is not my fault that she treated me like a +guest, or that she introduced me of necessity to her niece Cecilia. +And now I have finished my work, and after I have made my report I +shall probably not meet her again. As for Miss Cecilia Hollister, I +can only say, my dear Wiggins, that she is a rarely beautiful woman, +and that if you wish to marry her you have my very best wishes for your +success and happiness." + +"It struck me that you were pretty well established there," he blurted. +"I confess that I took it for granted you were not there wholly on a +professional errand; and I won't deny, Ames, that I was not pleased to +see you." + +"You honor me in assuming that I might aspire to the hand of so +splendid a woman as Cecilia Hollister; but, my dear Wiggins, I tell you +I never laid eyes on her until last night." + +"But you had been to the Asolando," he persisted, hacking away doggedly +at his stick. + +"Of course I had. I told you I had. I told you the whole story. But +I did not see Cecilia Hollister there. She was n't there! I fancy +that after you saw her there last spring and became infatuated with her +and followed her to Europe instead of going to Dakota to harvest your +blooming wheat--after that bit of history she never returned to the +Asolando. Your lack of frankness in all this has pained me. And you +left it for a gossiping chap like Jewett to tell me the whole story. +And to cap your duplicity you sneaked out of the club the other night +while Jewett was talking to me and let the club people think you were +bound for your ranch. I call it rather low down, Wiggins, after all +the years we have known each other. My slate is clean; how about +yours?" + +He threw the stick at a sparrow whose chirp irritated him from a stone +fence beyond us, and turned toward me a countenance on which dejection, +humiliation, and chagrin were written large. + +"Damn it all!" he bellowed, "I believe I 'm losing my mind. I don't +know what I 'm doing. That old woman up there is responsible for all +this. She 's as crazy as a March hare,--crazier! And she 's made a +prisoner of that girl. I tell you Cecilia Hollister is the grandest +girl in the world." + +"Go it, son! Those descendants of Caesar's legions at work in the road +down there are pausing to listen. Try to affect calmness if you don't +feel it. I agree to all you say of Miss Cecilia. And please get it +into your noddle that I have no intention of becoming your rival for +her hand. But I must beg of you also not to speak in such terms of her +aunt. She 's the most delightful woman I ever met." + +"Mad, I tell you, quite mad!" + +"Wise,--with the most beautiful wisdom; you simply don't understand +her." + +"I know all I want to about her. If she were not insane she would not +build a wall of mystery about her niece and keep me camping out here +not knowing where I stand. I tell you, Ames, that woman is a +malevolent being; she 's perfectly fiendish." + +There is no way of answering a man in this humor save by laughter; and +I laughed long and loud, to the consternation of the Italian +road-laborers who were now swallowing their luncheons a short distance +away from us. + +Wiggins sulked awhile and then addressed me seriously. + +"I didn't tell you I was going abroad, because the situation made +explanations difficult. I could hardly tell you that I was about to +race over Europe after a waitress I had seen in a tea-room. You 're +always so confoundedly suspicious. It would have an odd sound even now +if she were--well, if she were a waitress instead of what you know her +to be. And my animosity toward Miss Octavia Hollister is due to the +fact that after I had been as courteous to her all summer long as I +could, and thought myself tolerably established in her mind as a decent +person and a gentleman, she suddenly shuts Cecilia up in that +house,--bought it on purpose, I fancy,--and Cecilia herself is +compelled to take on an air of mystery, warning me to keep away, +suggesting the darkest possibilities, but giving me no hint whatever of +the reason for her conduct." + +"Let us confine ourselves to Miss Octavia for a moment. While you were +acting as cavalier to her party abroad she was friendly; then she +suddenly changed. Now there must be some explanation of that." + +"Well, for one thing, she flew off at a tangent about my ancestors. We +were in Berlin on the Fourth of July and got to talking about the +American revolution. She asked me what my people had done for the +patriotic cause. The painful fact is that most of them were Tories; +but my great-grandfather broke with his father and brothers, joined +Washington's army, and fought through the whole business. But to save +the feelings of the rest of them, who went to England till it was all +over, he changed his name. There's no mention of him in the war +records anywhere. I've had experts working on it, but they can't find +any trace of him. He was greatly embittered by the estrangement from +his people, and though he had a farm in this very neighborhood +somewhere--I 've thought sometime I 'd look it up and try to get hold +of it--he never mentioned his military experiences even to his own +children. Usually Miss Hollister changes front if you give her time. +I've heard her say that we'd have been better off if we'd never broken +with England; but she persists in prodding that weak place in my armor." + +"That's very dark, Wiggy. If she keeps it up you'll have to dig up +your great-grandfather someway. The spiritualists might call him on +long distance. But let us turn to Miss Cecilia. I don't for a moment +believe that she is a victim of ancestor worship. The perambulator +rampant adorns the Hollister shield to the exclusion of everything +else. From what you say Cecilia has not repelled you; on the other +hand she has frankly given you to understand that you must not press +your suit at this time for reasons she sees fit to withhold. A little +more patience, a little calm deliberation and less violent language, +and in due course the girl is yours. Now what do you fancy is the +cause of Cecilia's abrupt change of attitude?" + +He refused to meet my eyes, but turned away as though to conceal an +embarrassment whose cause I could not surmise. When he spoke it was in +a voice husky with emotion. + +"Am I a cad? Am I beneath the contempt of decent people?" + +"It's possible, Wiggy, that you are. Go on with it." + +"Well, you know," he began diffidently, "Cecilia has a sister." + +I grinned, but his scowl brought me to myself again. + +"Yes. And her name is Hezekiah. The name pleases me." + +"She was with Miss Octavia in her gallop over Europe, so I saw a good +deal of her necessarily. She is younger than Cecilia; she's a good +deal of a kid,--the sort that never grows up, you know." + +"Just like her aunt Octavia!" + +"Bah! Don't mention that woman. Hezekiah is a very pretty girl; and I +suppose,--well, when you are thrown with a girl that way, seeing her +constantly"-- + +I clapped my hand on his knee as the light began to dawn upon me. + +"You old rascal, you don't need to add a single word! I dare say you +are guilty. I can see it in your eye. After waiting till you reached +years of discretion before beginning an attack upon womankind, you +began mowing them down in platoons. So they come running now that you +'ve got a start. Oh, Wiggy, and I believed you immune! And you 're +trying to drive 'em tandem." + +The thing was funny, knowing Wiggins as I did, and I gave expression to +my mirth; but his fierce demeanor quickly brought me back to the +serious contemplation of his difficulty. + +"That, you shameless wretch, would be a sufficient reason for Miss +Octavia's aloofness,--your double-faced dealing with her nieces? You +confirm my impression that she is a wise woman. And Cecilia, I take +it, may be deeply embarrassed by her sister's infatuation for you. You +certainly have made a tangle of things, you heart-wrecker, you +conscienceless deceiver! But where, may I ask, does this Hezekiah keep +herself?" + +"Oh, she's with her father. They have a bungalow over the hills there, +several miles from Hopefield Manor." + +"Well, I hope you are no longer toying with her affections. Of course +you don't see her any more?" + +"Well," he mumbled, "I did see her this morning. But I could n't help +it. It was the merest chance. I met her in the road when I was out +taking a walk. She 's always turning up,--she's the most unaccountable +young person." + +"I suppose, Wiggy, that if you stand in the road and Miss Hezekiah +Hollister strolls by on her way to market, you fancy that she is +pursuing you. As Miss Octavia has well said, this is not a chivalrous +age. I 'm deeply disappointed in you. Your conduct and your attitude +toward this trusting young girl are disgraceful." + +He rose and flung up his arms despairingly. It was much easier to +laugh at Wiggins than to be angry at him; but I recalled the message +which Cecilia had entrusted to me, and this, I thought, might give him +some comfort. + +"Miss Cecilia asked me this morning to say to you that you must not try +to see her again; you must keep away from the house." + +This obviously increased his dejection. + +"But," I added, "I was to say that she thought nothing had yet occurred +to interfere with your ambitions, as you were not permitted to see her +alone last night. The chimney, you may remember, began playing pranks +just at the moment when Miss Hollister and I were about to adjourn to +the billiard-room, so a tete-a-tete between you and Cecilia was +impossible." + +"She told you to see me?" + +"She certainly did. I confess that my message does n't seem luminous, +but I have a feeling that she meant to be kind. It may be that she is +giving you time to disentangle yourself from the delectable Hezekiah's +meshes. I can't elucidate; I merely convey information. But answer +honestly if you can: has Cecilia ever by word or act refused you?" + +"No," he replied grimly; "she 's never given me the chance!" + +He asked me to luncheon, and on the way back to the inn, after +inquiring my plans for returning to town, he proposed that I delay my +departure until the following day. What he wanted, and he put it +bluntly, was a friend at court, and as I had seemingly satisfied him of +my entire good faith and of my devotion to his interests, he begged +that I prolong my stay in Miss Hollister's house, giving as my excuse +the condition of the chimneys of Hopefield Manor. He brushed aside my +plea of other engagements and appealed to our old friendship. He was +taking his troubles hard, and I felt that he really needed counsel and +support in the involved state of his affairs. I did not see how my +continued presence under Miss Hollister's roof could materially assist +him, and the thought of remaining there when there was no work to be +done was repugnant to my sense of professional honor; but he was so +persistent that I finally yielded. + +While we ate luncheon I sought by every means to divert his thoughts to +other channels. After we were seated in the dining-room four other men +followed, exercising considerable care in placing themselves as far +from one another as possible. A few moments later a motor hummed into +the driveway, and we heard its owner ordering his chauffeur to return +to town and hold himself subject to telephone call. This latest +arrival appeared shortly in the dining-room, and surveying the rest of +us with a disdainful air, sought a table in the remotest corner of the +room. Others appeared, until eight in all had entered. The presence +of these men at this hour, their air of aloofness, and the care they +exercised in isolating themselves, interested me. They appeared to be +gentlemen; they were, indeed, suggestive of the ampler metropolitan +world; and one of them was unmistakably a foreigner. + +While Wiggins appeared to ignore them, I was conscious that he reviewed +the successive arrivals with every manifestation of contempt. One of +these glum gentlemen seemed familiar; I could not at once recall him, +but something in his manner teased my memory for a moment before I +placed him. Then it dawned upon me that he was the third man I had met +in the field overhanging the garden after my eavesdropping experience +the day before. I thought it as well, however, not to mention this +fact, or to speak of the man I had seen so grimly posted in the midst +of the cornfield. I was an observer, a looker-on, at Hopefield, and my +immediate business was the collecting of information. + +"Will you kindly tell me, Wiggy, who these strange gentlemen are and +just what has brought them here at this hour? They seem greatly +preoccupied, and the last one, in particular, surveyed you with a +murderous eye. If we could be translated to some such inn as this in +the environs of Paris, I should conclude that a duel was imminent and +that these gentlemen were assembling to meet after their coffee +to-morrow morning for an affair of honor." + +"I know them; they are guests of the inn. Most of them were more or +less companions in our procession across Europe last summer. The one +in the tan suit is Henderson; you must have heard of him. The short +dark chap of atrabilous countenance is John Stewart Dick, who pretends +to be a philosopher. As for the others"-- + +He dismissed them with a jerk of the head. My wits struggled with his +explanation. It is my way to wish to reduce information to plain terms. + +"Are these gentlemen, then, your rivals for the hand of Miss Cecilia +Hollister? If so, they are a solemn band of suitors, I must confess." + +"You have hit it, Ames. They are suitors, assembled from all parts of +the world." + +"Nice-looking fellows, except the chap with the monocle, who has just +ordered rather more liquor than a gentleman should drink at this hour." + +"That is Lord Arrowood. I have feared at times that Miss Octavia +favored him." + +"Possibly, but not likely. But how long is this thing going to last? +If you fellows are going to hang on here until Miss Cecilia Hollister +has chosen one of you for her husband, I shudder for your nerves. I +imagine that any one of these gentlemen is likely to begin shooting +across his plate at any minute. Such a situation would become +intolerable very quickly if I were in the game and forced to lodge +here." + +"I hope," replied Wiggins with heat, "that you don't imagine these +fellows can crowd me out! I 've paid for a month's lodging in advance, +and if you will stand by me I 'm going to win." + +"Spoken like a man, my dear Wiggins! You may count on me to the sweet +or bitter end, even if I pull down all the superb chimneys with which +Pepperton adorned that house up yonder." + +He silently clasped my hand. A little later I telephoned from the inn +to my office explaining my absence and instructing my assistant to +visit several pressing clients; and I instructed the valet at the Hare +and Tortoise to send me a week's supply of linen and an odd suit or two. + +At about three o'clock I left Wiggins in first-rate spirits and set out +on my return to Hopefield Manor. I felt the eyes of the eight other +suitors, who were scattered at intervals along the verandah, glued to +my back as I drove out of the inn yard. + + + + +VII + +NINE SILK HATS CROSS A STILE + +A girl in a white sweater sat on a stone wall and munched a red apple; +but this is to anticipate. + +I had made a wrong turn on leaving the Prescott Arms, and I came out +presently near Katonah village. I got my bearings of a shopkeeper and +started again for Hopefield Manor; but the mid-afternoon was warm, and +the hills were steep, and as Miss Hollister's admirable cob showed +signs of weariness, I drove into a fence-corner and loosened the mare's +check. On a sunny slope several hundred yards above the highway lay an +orchard, advertised to the larcenous eye by the ruddiest of red apples. +Not in many years had I robbed an orchard, and I felt irresistibly +drawn toward the gnarled trees, which were still, in their old age, +abundantly fruitful. + +When I reached the orchard I found it quite isolated, with only fallow +fields, seamed with stone fences, stretching on either hand. A spring +near by sent the slenderest of brooks flashing down the slope. There +was no house in sight anywhere, and the neglected orchard flaunted its +bright fruit with pathetic bravado. I drew down a bough and plucked my +first apple, tasted, and found it good. At my palate's first +responsive titillation, something whizzed past my ear, and following +the flight of the missile, I saw an apple of goodly size fall and roll +away into the grass. I had imagined myself utterly alone, and even +now, as I looked guiltily around, no one was in sight. The apple had +passed my ear swiftly and at an angle quite un-Newtonian. It had been +fairly aimed at my head, and the law of gravitation did not account for +it. As I continued my scrutiny of the landscape, I was addressed by a +voice whose accents were not objurgatory. Rather, the tone was +good-natured and indulgent, if not indeed a trifle patronizing. The +words were these:-- + + "Soup of the evening, beautiful soup!" + + +It was then that, lifting my eyes, I beheld, sitting lengthwise of the +wall, with her feet drawn comfortably under her, a girl in a white +sweater, bareheaded, munching an apple. There was no question of +identity: it was the girl whose head behind the cashier's grill of the +Asolando had interested me on the occasion of my second visit to the +tea-room. In soliciting my attention by reciting a line of verse, she +had merely followed the rule of the tea-room in like circumstances. +The casting of the apple at my head possessed the virtue of novelty, +but now that her shot was fired and her line spoken, she addressed +herself again to her apple. Her manner implied indifference; but her +unconcern was that of a trout not wishing to discourage the fisherman, +feigning a languid interest in a familiar fly dropped at its nose. +While I tried to think of something to say, I pecked at my own apple, +but kept an eye on her. She concluded her repast calmly and flung away +the core. + +"I mentioned soup," she remarked. "The courses are mixed. We have +partaken of fruit. Are you fish, flesh, fowl, or good red herring?" + +"Daughter of Eve, I will be anything you like. I 'm obliged for the +apple, and I apologize for having entered Eden uninvited." + +"It's not my Eden. Nobody invited me. But it's not too much to say +that these apples are grand." + +"I 'm glad we 're both in the same boat. I 'm a trespasser myself. I +don't even know the name of the owner. But if you have had only one +apple, two more are coming to you, if you follow Atalanta's precedent." + +"I don't follow precedents, and I 've forgotten the name of the boy who +threw the apples in the race. It does n't matter, though; nothing +matters very much." + +Her hands clasped her knees. Her skirt was short, and I was conscious +that she wore tan shoes. She continued to regard me with lazy +curiosity. She seemed younger than at the Asolando. Not more than +eighteen times had apples reddened on the bough in her lifetime! She +was even slenderer and more youthful in her sweater than in the snowy +vestments of the Asolando. Her hair which, in the glow of the lamp at +Asolando cash-desk had been golden, was to-day burnished copper, and +was brushed straight back from her forehead and tied with a black +ribbon. + +"I quite agree with your philosophy. Nothing is of great importance." + +"So it's not your orchard?" she asked. + +"The thought flatters me. I own no lands nor ships at sea. I 'm a +chimney doctor, and if necessary I 'll apologize for it." + +"You needn't submit testimonials; I take the swallows out of my own +chimneys." + +"That requires a deft hand, and I 'm sure you 're considerate of the +swallows." + +"You may come up here and sit on the wall if you care to. I saw you +driving in a trap. I hope your horse is n't afraid of motors; motors +speed scandalously on that road." + +"I am not in the least worried about my horse. It's borrowed. As you +remarked, this is a nice orchard. I like it here." + +"If you are going to be silly, you will find me little inclined to +nonsense." + +"Shall we talk of the Asolando? I haven't been back since I saw you +there. And yet,--let me see, is n't this your day there?" + +She seemed greatly amused; and her laughter rose with a fountain-like +spontaneity, and fell, a splash of musical sound, on the mellow air of +the orchard. She had changed her position as I joined her, sitting +erect, and kicking her heels lazily against the wall. + +"Mr. Chimney Man, something terrible happened just after you left that +afternoon. I was bounced, fired; I lost my job." + +"Incredible! I 'm sure it was not for any good cause. I can testify +that you were a model of attention; you were surpassingly discreet. +You repelled me in the most delicate manner when I intimated that I +should come often on the days that you made the change." + +"The sad part of it was that that was not only my last day but my +first! I had never been there before, except for a nibble now and then +when I was in town. But I could n't stand it. It was like being in +jail; in fact, I think jail would be preferable. But I 'm glad I spent +that one day there. It proved what I have long believed, that I am a +barbarian. That poetry on the walls of the Asolando made me tired, not +that it is n't good poetry, but that the walls of a tea-shop are no +place for it. I always suspect that people who like their poetry +framed, and who have uplift mottoes stuck in mirrors where they can +study them while they brush their hair in the morning, never really get +any poetry inside of them. You need a place like this for poetry,--an +old orchard, with blue sky and a crumbly wall to sit on. I tried the +Asolando as a lark, really, not because I 'm deeply entertained by that +sort of thing. They dispensed with my company because I remarked to +one of the silly girls who are making the Asolando their life-work that +I thought the English Pre-Raphaelites had carried the dish-face rather +too far. The girl to whom I uttered this heresy was so shocked she +dropped a tea-cup,--you know how brittle everything is in there,--and I +came home. You were really the only adventure I got out of my day +there. And I did n't find you entirely satisfactory." + +"Thank you, Francesca, for these confidences. And having lost your +position you are now free to roam the hills and dream on orchard walls. +Your scheme of life is to my liking. I can see with half an eye that +you were born for the open, and that the walls of no prison-house can +ever hold you again." + +She nodded a dreamy acquiescence. Then she turned two very brown eyes +full upon me and demanded:-- + +"What is your name, please?" + +I mentioned it. + +"And you doctor chimneys? That sounds very amusing." + +"I 'm glad you like it. Most people think it absurd." + +"What are you doing here? There's not a chimney in sight." + +"Oh, I have a commission in the neighborhood. Hopefield Manor; you may +have heard of Miss Hollister's place." + +"Of course; every one knows of her." + +"And now that I think of it, it was she about whom you asked in the +Asolando that afternoon. You wanted to know what she said about the +tea-room." + +"I remember perfectly." + +She was quiet for a moment, then she threw back her head and laughed +that rare laugh of hers. + +"You might let me into the joke." + +"It would n't mean anything to you. I have a lot of private jokes that +are for my own consumption." + +"Your way of laughing is adorable. I hope to hear more of it. In the +Asolando you repulsed me in a manner that won my admiration, but I +venture to say now that, if you roam these pastures, I am the grass +beneath your feet; and if yonder tuneful water be sacred to you, I sit +beside the brook to learn its song." + +"You talk well, sir, but from your tone I fear you can't forget that we +met first in the Asolando. That day of my life is past, and I am by no +means what you might call an Asolandad. I don't seem to impress you +with that fact. I 'm a human being, not to be picked like a red apple, +or trampled upon like grass, or listened to as though I were a foolish +little brook. I 'm greatly given to the highway, and I prefer macadam. +I like asphalt pavements, too, for the matter of that. I should love a +motor, but lacking the coin I pedal a bicycle. My wheel lies down +there in the bushes. You see, Mr. Chimney Man, I am a plain-spoken +person and have no intention of deceiving you. My name was Francesca +for one day only. It may interest you to know that my real name is +Hezekiah." + +"Hezekiah!" + +I must have shouted it; she seemed startled by my violence. + +"You have pronounced it correctly," she remarked. + +"Then you are Cecilia's sister and Miss Hollister's niece." + +"Guilty." + +"And you live?"-- + +"Over there somewhere, beyond that ridge," and she waved her hand +vaguely toward the village and laughed again. + +"Pray tell me what this particular joke is: it must be immensely +funny," I urged, struggling with these new facts. + +"Oh, it's Aunt Octavia! She will be the death of me yet! You know the +girl who waited on Aunt Octavia that afternoon took all that artistic +nonsense as seriously as a funeral, and she told me after you left, +with the greatest horror, that Aunt Octavia had asked for a cocktail!" +That laugh rippled off again to carry joy along the planet-trails above +us. "But you know," she resumed, "that Aunt Octavia never drank a +cocktail in her life,--and would n't! She does n't know a cocktail +from soothing syrup! She pines for adventures. She is just like a +boarding-school girl who has read her first romance of the young +American engineer in a South American republic, shooting the insurgents +full of tortillas and marrying the president's dark-eyed daughter. She +reads pirate books and is crazy about buried chests and pieces of +eight. And they say I 'm just like her! She is the most perfectly +killing person in the world!" + +Hezekiah laughed again. + +So this was the child whose devotion had rendered Wiggins so miserable, +and the sister of whom Cecilia Hollister and her aunt had spoken so +strangely. I had not suspected it. She was as unlike Cecilia as +possible, and the difference lay in her independent spirit and bubbling +humor. Her individuality was more pronounced. You took her, without +debate, on her own ground; and though she had expressed a preference +for macadam, she seemed related to the days when maidens sat on sunny +walls and were not disappointed in their expectation that light-footed +youths, or mayhap winged sons of the Olympians, would reward patient +waiting. But at the same time she struck the note of modernity. Her +flings at the Asolando were reassuring; she was a healthy-minded, +vigorous young woman whose nature protested against affectation and +pose. She rebelled against closed doors, whether those of town or +country. I am myself much of a cockney, and not averse to asphalt and +streets ablaze with electric banners. My imagination sprang to meet +this Hezekiah. I had, in fact, a feeling that I had waited for her +somewhere in some earlier incarnation. She jumped down from the wall, +shook three apples from a tree, and sustained them in the air with the +deftness and certainty of practised _jonglerie_. Her absorption was +complete, and when she wearied of this sport, she flung the apples +away, one after the other, with a boy's free swing of the arm. Herrick +would have delighted in her; Dobson would have spun her bright hair +into a rondeau; but only Aldrich, with a twinkle in his eye, could have +brought her up to date in a dozen chiming couplets. I felt that no +matter how much one admired and respected this Hezekiah one would never +deal with her in the phrases of drawing-rooms. Her charming +inadvertences made this impossible; and it was the part of discretion +to await her own initiative. + +She had gone on up to the crest of the orchard, and stood clearly +limned against the sky, her hands thrust into the pockets of her +sweater. She appeared to be intent upon something that lay beyond, and +half turned her head and summoned me by whistling. I liked this better +than the quotation method of address. It was a clear shrill pipe, that +whistle, and she emphasized it further by a peremptory wave of her arm. +When I stood beside her I was surprised to find that the site commanded +a wide area, including the unmistakable roofs and chimneys of Hopefield +Manor half a mile distant. + +[Illustration: She emphasized it further by a peremptory wave of her +arm.] + +"You will see something funny down there in a minute. They are out of +sight now, but there 's a stile--the kind with steps, just beyond those +trees. It's in a path that leads from the Prescott Arms to Aunt +Octavia's. Look!" + +My eyes discovered the stile. It was set in a wall that was, she told +me, the boundary dividing Hopefield Manor from another estate nearer +our position. + +Suddenly a silk hat bobbed in the path beyond the stile; it rose as its +owner mounted the steps; it paused an instant when the top of the stile +was reached; then quickly descended, and came toward us, a black blot +above a black coat. I was about to ask her the meaning of this +apparition when a second silk hat bobbed in the path and then rose like +its predecessor, descending and keeping on its way until hidden from +our sight by shrubbery. A third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, +eighth, and ninth followed. Nine gentlemen in silk hats crossing a +stile in a lonely pasture between woodlands; so much was plain to the +eye from our vantage-ground; but I groped blindly for an explanation of +this spectacle. The bobbing hats and dark coats suggested wanderers +from some dark Plutonian cave, bent upon mischief to the upper world. +Their step was jaunty; they moved as though drilled to the same cadence. + +We waited a moment, expecting that another figure might join the +strange procession, but nine was the correct count. I looked down to +find Hezekiah checking them off on the fingers of her slim brown hand. + +"Has there been a funeral and are they the returning pall-bearers?" I +inquired. + +"Not yet," she replied. + +Her face showed amusement; the twitching of her lips encouraged hope +that another of those delightful laughs was imminent. + +"It was positively weird," I said. "It reminds me of a dream I used to +have, when I was a boy, of a long line of Chinamen running along the +top of a great wall,--an interminable procession. I must have dreamed +that dream a hundred times. I could hear the pigtails of those fellows +flapping against their backs as they trotted along, and the soft +scraping of their sandals on the smooth surface of the wall. But the +pot hats are equally eerie and unaccountable to my dull +twentieth-century senses. Pray tell me the answer, Hezekiah." + +"Oh, those are Cecilia's suitors. They've been to Aunt Octavia's to +tea. They 're staying at the Prescott Arms probably." + +"They 're terribly formal. I can't get rid of the impression of +sombreness created by those fellows. You 'd hardly expect them to +tramp cross country in those duds. Such grandeur should go on wheels." + +"Oh, they are afraid of Aunt Octavia! She won't allow a motor on her +grounds; and I suppose they 're afraid they might break some other rule +if they went on any kind of wheels. She 's rather exacting, you know, +my aunt Octavia." + +"I was at the Prescott for luncheon to-day, and I must have seen these +gentlemen there." + +"Oh, _you_ were at the Prescott?" + +Almost for the first time her manner betrayed surprise; but mischief +danced in the brown eyes. With Wiggins's confession as to the havoc he +had played with Hezekiah's confiding heart fresh in my memory, I felt a +delicacy about telling her that it was to see Wiggins that I had +visited the inn. But to my surprise she introduced the subject of +Wiggins immediately, and with laughter struggling for one of those +fountain-like splashes that were so beguiling. + +"Oh, Wiggy is staying there! Do you know Wiggy?" + +"Know Wiggy, Hezekiah? I know no man better." + +"Wiggy is no end of fun, isn't he? I've heard him speak of you. You +are his friend the Chimney Man. He was the last man over the stile. +Did you notice that he lingered a moment longer at the top than the +others? From his being the ninth man I imagine that he was the last to +leave the house, and he probably felt that this set him apart from the +others. Wiggy is nothing if not shy and retiring." + +A heart-broken, love-lorn girl did not speak here. She whistled softly +to herself as we descended. The air was cooling rapidly, and the west +was hung in scarlet and purple and gold. The horse neighed in the road +below, and I knew that I must be on my way to the Manor. + +"Hezekiah," I said, when I had drawn her bicycle from its hiding-place, +"you 'd better leave your wheel here and let me drive you home. It's +late and there 's frost in the air. I imagine it's some distance to +your house." + +"Thank you, Mr. Chimney Man; but it is much farther to Aunt Octavia's, +for you have to make a long circuit around the hills. And besides, as +we met in the orchard, it would be altogether too commonplace a +conclusion of our adventure for you to drive me home behind a mere +horse. But tell me this: what do you think of Wiggy's chances?" + +"Of winning your sister? I should say from my knowledge of Wiggins +that he is a man much given to staying in a game once the cards are +shuffled." + +She nodded, standing beside her wheel, her hands on the bars. Her +manner was contemplative; her eyes for a moment were deep, shadowless +pools of reverie. + +"Then you think he knows the game?" + +There seemed to be something beneath the surface meaning of her words, +but I answered:-- + +"Wiggy's affairs have been few, and while he may not know the game in +all its intricacies, he has a shrewd if rather slow mind, and besides, +he has asked my help in the matter." + +"One of these speak-for-yourself-John situations, then? Well, I should +say, Mr. Chimney Man, I should say"-- + +She made ready for flight, looking ahead to be sure of a clear +thoroughfare. + +"I should say," she concluded, settling her skirts, "that that +indicates considerable intelligence on Wiggy's part." + +The tires rolled smoothly away; the gravel crunching, the pebbles +popping. The white sweater clasped a straight back snugly; then +suddenly, as the wheels gained momentum, she bent low for a spurt, and +her rapidly receding figure became a gray blur in the purple dusk. + + + + +VIII + +CECILIA'S SILVER NOTE-BOOK + +Miss Octavia was in the gayest spirits at dinner that night, and struck +afield at once with one of her amusing dicta. + +"Human beings," she said, "may be divided into two groups,--interesting +and uninteresting; but idiots abound in both classes." + +Cecilia and I discussed this with more or less gravity, until we had +exhausted the possibilities, Miss Octavia following with apparent +interest and setting us off at a new tangent when our enthusiasm +lagged. She referred in no way whatever to her chimneys, nor did she +ask me how I had spent the day. I felt the pleading of Cecilia's eyes +that I should accept the situation as it stood, and having already +agreed to Wiggins's suggestion that I abide in Miss Hollister's house +as a spy,--for this was the ignoble fact,--I felt the threads of +conspiracy binding me fast. So far as my hostess was concerned, I was +now less a guest than a member of the household. + +The variety of subjects that Miss Octavia suggested was amazing. From +aeronautics to the negro question, from polar exploration to the +political conditions in Bulgaria, she passed with the jauntiest +insouciance and apparently with a considerable fund of information to +support her positions. She knew many people in all walks of life. I +remember that she spoke with the greatest freedom of the Governor of +Indiana, whom she had met on a railway journey. She quoted this +gentleman's utterances with keenest zest. His anecdotal range she +declared to be the widest and raciest she had ever encountered in a +considerable acquaintance with public characters. She thought the +Hoosier statesman eminently fitted by reason of his acute sense of +humor for the office of president. + +"That man," said Miss Octavia, "was splendidly equipped for handling +the most perplexing affairs of state. It seemed absurd that his public +services should be limited to the petty business of a commonwealth +whose chief products are pawpaws, persimmons, and politics. The +governor told me that before his election he had been sorely beset by +reformers. They had teased him persistently to express his views on +the most absurd questions. They wanted him to promise all manner of +things before they gave him their support. And finally, to appease +them, he answered that he would combine their questions in one and +reply to all that, the earth being round, he would, if elected, do all +in his power to make it square. This he found to be perfectly +satisfactory to the reformers. Solomon was a mere tyro in wisdom +compared with that man. You would n't expect so much sagacity in one +who, by his own frank confession, had been raised on fried meat, and +who declared that if grand opera were attempted in his state he would +suspend the writ of habeas corpus and call out the militia to suppress +it." + +I was not at all sure whether the governor whom she quoted with so +great delight was an actual person or a myth upon whom Miss Octavia +hung her own whimsicalities; but as if to rebuke my skepticism, she +dwelt on this personage at considerable length, inviting my own and +Cecilia's questions as to her knowledge of him. + +"I didn't suppose," remarked Cecilia provocatively, "that Indiana was +really a place that you could go to on trains, but a kind of imaginary +kingdom like Eppenwelzen-Sarkeld or Grunewald or Zenda, or an extinct +place in Asia where lions crouch upon the ruins in the moonlight." + +"Indiana," said Miss Octavia sternly, "is a commonwealth for which I +have always had the greatest veneration, and which, in due course, I +hope to visit. In the early seventies my father, the late Hezekiah +Hollister, invested a considerable part of his fortune in Indiana +farm-mortgages. On these investments the interest was paid with only +the greatest reluctance and in the most fitful fashion. This, I think, +argues for a keen sense of humor in the Hoosier people. Interest is +something that I should never think of paying in any circumstances, as +I have always considered it immoral. My father, keenly enjoying the +playfulness of the Hoosiers in this particular, saved himself from loss +merely by raising the price of baby-cabs throughout the world, and gave +the mortgages as a free gift to the Society for the Amelioration of the +Condition of Good Indians. All the good Indians being dead, the +society had no expenses except officers' salaries, and as the Hoosiers +gave up politics for a season and raised enough corn to pay their +debts, the society became enormously rich." + +As we rose from the table Miss Octavia declared that she must show me +the pie-pantry. I was now so accustomed to her ways that I should not +have been in the least surprised if she had proposed opening a steel +vault filled with a mummified Egyptian dynasty. + +"The gentleman who built this house," she explained, "had already grown +rich in the manufacture of the famous ribless umbrella before he +acquired a second fortune from a nostrum warranted to cure dyspepsia. +He was inordinately fond of pies, and in order that this form of pastry +might never be absent from his home, he had a special pantry built to +which he might adjourn at his pleasure without any fear of finding the +cupboard bare." + +She led the way through the butler's pantry and into a small cupboarded +room adjoining the table-linen closet. At her command the butler threw +open the doors, and disclosed lines of shelves so arranged as to +accommodate, in the most compact and orderly form imaginable, several +dozens of pies. These pastries, in the pans as they had come from the +oven, peeped out invitingly. Miss Octavia explained their presence in +her usual impressive manner. + +"It was one of the conditions of the sale of this house to me by the +original owner's executors that the pie-vault should be kept filled at +all times, whether I am in residence here or not. He felt greatly +indebted to pie for the success of the dyspepsia cure. It had widened +and steadily increased the market for the cure, and pie was to him a +consecrated and sacred food. It was his habit to eat a pie every night +before retiring, and on the nightmares thus inspired he had planned the +strategy of all his campaigns against dyspepsia. The man had elements +of greatness, and these shelves are a monument to his genius. In order +to keep perfect my title to this property it is necessary for me to +maintain a pastry-cook, and as I do not myself care greatly for +pie--though contrary to common experience I have found it a splendid +antephialtic--the total output is distributed among the people of the +neighborhood every second day. The station agent at Bedford is a heavy +consumer, and a retired physician at Mt. Kisco has a standing order for +a dozen a week. My niece Hezekiah, of whom you have heard me speak, is +partial to a particular type of pie and one only. It is the gooseberry +that delights Hezekiah's palate, and under G in File 3, in the corner +behind you, there is even now a gooseberry pie that I shall send to +Hezekiah, who, for reasons I need not explain, does not now visit here." + +"But the dyspepsia man--you speak of him as though he were dead." + +"Your assumption is correct, Mr. Ames. The builder of Hopefield died +only a few weeks after he had established himself in this house. +Having entered upon the enjoyment of his well-earned leisure, and made +it unnecessary that he should ever go pieless to bed, he gave himself +up for a fortnight to a mad indulgence in meringues, and died after +great suffering, steadily refusing his own medicine to the end." + +We still lingered in the pie-crypt after this diverting recital, while +Miss Octavia entertained me with her views on pies. + +"The soul-color of pies varies greatly, Mr. Ames. It has always seemed +to me that apple-pie stands for the homelier virtues of our +civilization; it is substantial, nutritious and filling. The custard +and lemon varieties are feminine, and do not, perhaps for that reason, +appeal to me. Cherry-pie at its best is the last and final expression +of the pie genus, and where cooks have been careful in eliminating the +seeds, and the juice hasn't made sodden dough of the crust, a +cherry-pie meets the soul's highest demands. Grape and raisin-pie are +on my cook's _index expurgatorius_; I consider them neither palatable +nor respectable. But rhubarb is the most odious pie of all, in my +judgment. It suggests the pharmacopoeia--only that and no thing more. +You will pardon me for mentioning the matter, but one of my gardeners, +a Swiss, crawled in here two nights ago and stole a rhubarb-pie, which, +I rejoice to say, made him hideously ill. The R's, you will notice, +are placed near the floor and within easy reach of any larcenous hand. +The ease of his approach was his undoing. The pumpkin variety reaches +almost the same lofty heights as the cherry. When not over-dosed with +spices, a pumpkin-pie conveys a sense of the October landscape that is +the despair of the best painters. In the gooseberry I find a certain +raciness, or if I may use the expression, zip, that is highly +stimulating. Both qualities you will observe in Hezekiah if you come +to know her well. The thought of blackberry or raspberry-pie depresses +me, but huckleberry buoys the spirit again. The huckleberry seems to +me to voice a protest, and unless managed with the greatest neatness +and circumspection it is bound to stimulate the laundry business. As +any one who would eat a cooked strawberry would steal a sick baby's +rattle, I need hardly say that the strawberry-pies, even in their +season, shall have no place on these shelves." + +"So it is the gooseberry that Miss Hezekiah prefers," I remarked with +feigned carelessness, as we walked toward the library. + +"It is, Mr. Ames; and I trust that your inquiry implies no reflection +on Hezekiah's judgment." + +"Quite the reverse, Miss Hollister. It is not going too far to say +that I have formed a high opinion of Miss Hezekiah, and that I should +deal harshly with any one who ventured to criticise her in any +particular." + +"Will you kindly inform me just when you made the acquaintance of my +younger niece? I should greatly dislike to believe you guilty of +dissimulation, but when Hezekiah was mentioned in the gun-room last +night your silence led me to assume that she was wholly unknown to you." + +"She was, I assure you, at the dinner-hour last night; but I met her +quite by chance this afternoon, in an orchard at no great distance from +this house." + +I did not think it necessary to mention the Asolando, as Hezekiah +herself had taken pains to avoid her aunt in the tea room. It was +clear that my words had interested Miss Octavia. She paused in the +hall, and bent her head in thought for a moment. + +"May I inquire whether she referred in any way to Mr. Wiggins in this +interview?" + +"She did, Miss Hollister," I replied; and I could not help smiling as I +remembered Hezekiah's laughter at the mention of my friend. My smile +did not escape Miss Octavia. + +"Just how, may I ask, did she refer to Mr. Wiggins?" + +"As though she thought him the funniest of human beings. She laughed +deliciously at the bare mention of his name." + +"It was not your impression, then, that she was deeply enamored of him; +that she was eating her heart out for him?" + +"Decidedly not, Miss Hollister. She gave me quite a different idea." + +"You relieve me greatly. Mr. Wiggins's sense of humor is the +slightest, and I should not in the least fancy him for Hezekiah. And +besides, I am not yet ready to arrange a marriage for her." + +She laid the slightest stress on the final pronoun. It was a fair +inference, then, that Miss Cecilia's affairs were being "arranged;" +when they had been determined, a husband would be found for Hezekiah. +But had there ever existed before, anywhere in the Copernican system, a +wealthy aunt so delightfully irresponsible, so vertiginous in her +mental processes, so happily combining the maddest quixotism with the +bold spirit of the Elizabethan mariners! My faith in the real +sweetness and kindliness of her nature was unshaken by her +capriciousness. I did not doubt that her intentions toward her nieces +were the friendliest, no matter what strange devices she might employ +to bend those young women to her purposes. + +She disappeared in the hall without excuse, and I entered the library +to find Cecilia sitting alone by the fire. She put aside a book she +had been reading, and seeing that her aunt had not followed me, asked +at once as to my visit to the inn. + +"I conveyed your message," I answered; "but you have seen Mr. Wiggins +since, unless I am greatly mistaken." + +"Yes; he called this afternoon. We had several callers at the +tea-hour. I had rather expected you back." + +"The fact is," I replied, "that after I had taken luncheon at the +Prescott Arms, I got lost among the hills, and while in the act of +robbing an apple-orchard I came most unexpectedly upon your sister." + +"Hezekiah!" + +"The same; and oddly enough, I had met her before, though I did n't +realize it was she until the meeting in the orchard. It was in the +Asolando that I saw her; she was at the cashier's wicket the afternoon +I met your aunt there." + +She seemed puzzled for a moment; then her eyes brightened, and she +laughed; but her laugh was not like Hezekiah's. Cecilia's mirth had +its own expression. It was touched with a sweet gravity, and her +laughter was such as one would expect from the Milo if that divine +marble were to yield to mirth. Cecilia grew upon me: there was magic +in her loveliness; she was a finished product. It seemed inconceivable +that she and the fair-haired girl with whom I had exchanged banter in +the upland orchard were daughters of one mother. + +"You have given me information, Mr. Ames. I did not know that Hezekiah +had ever been connected with the Asolando." + +"Oh, it was only that one historic day. She says the place was +unbearable. She jarred the holiest chords of the divine lyre by harsh +comments on the Pre-Raphaelite profile. One of the devotees was so +shocked that she dropped a plate or something, and, to put it coarsely, +Hezekiah got the bounce." + +My description of Hezekiah's brief tenure of office at the Asolando +seemed to amuse Cecilia greatly. + +"There is no one like my sister," she said; "there never was and there +never will be any one half so charming. Hezekiah is an original, who +breaks all the rules and yet always sends the ball over the net. And +it is because she is so inexpressibly dear and precious that I am +anxious that nothing shall ever hurt her,--nothing mar the sweet, +beautiful child-spirit in her." + +It was my turn to laugh now. Cecilia's manifestation of maternal +solicitude for Hezekiah seemed absurd. For Hezekiah, in her way, was +older; Hezekiah had raced with Diana and plucked arrows from her +girdle; she had heard Homer at the roadside singing of Achilles' shield. + +"Hezekiah is reasonably safe, I should say, because she is so amazingly +swift of foot and eye, and so nimble of speech. She is not to be +caught in a net or tripped with a word." + +"I suppose that is so," remarked Cecilia soberly. "You thought her +happy when you met her to-day? She did not strike you as being a girl +with a wound in her heart? She was n't particularly _triste_?" + +"Not more so than sunlight on rippled water or the song of the lark +ascending." + +"Of course you made no reference to Mr. Wiggins? If I had imagined you +would meet her I should have"-- + +She ended with an embarrassment that I now understood, and I broke in +cheerfully. + +"We did mention him. She asked me if I had seen him, and it was the +thought of him that evoked her merriest laughter." + +She shook her head and sighed; then her manner changed abruptly. + +"You delivered my message to Mr. Wiggins?" + +"I did. He is badly out of sorts and sees nothing clearly. He is very +bitter toward your aunt. He thinks she has treated him outrageously." + +"Aunt Octavia has done nothing of the kind," she replied with spirit. +"Mr. Wiggins has no right to speak of Aunt Octavia save in terms of +kindness. If her wits are sharper than his, it is not her fault, that +I can see! But there are matters here that I do not understand, Mr. +Ames. I trust you, as my aunt evidently does, or I should not be +talking to you as I am; and I am moved to ask a favor of you,--a favor +of considerable weight in view of the fact that you are a professional +man with doubtless many pressing calls upon your time." + +I bowed humbly before this compliment. My time had been lightly +appraised by Miss Octavia and again by Wiggins. A long telegram from +my assistant that reached me while I dressed for dinner had urged my +immediate attendance upon my office. Some of my best clients, now +reopening their houses for the winter, were in desperate straits. From +the number of appeals for help reported by my assistant I judged that +all the chimneys in the republic had grown obstreperous. But Father +Time learned early in his career that to women his scythe's edge has no +terrors. In this instance I must admit that if Cecilia Hollister +wished to cut a few days out of my reasonable expectation of life it +was not for me to plead sick chimneys as an excuse for declining to +serve her. + +In fact, I had never found myself so close upon the heels of the +adventure that we all crave as since making the acquaintance of the +Hollisters. Octavia Hollisters do not occur in the life of every young +man, and both Cecilia and Hezekiah had taken strong hold upon my +imagination. Wiggins's place among the dramatis personae would in +itself have compelled my sympathetic attention; and the nine silk hats +that I had seen bobbing over the stile still danced before my eyes. + +"Miss Hollister," I said, "my time is yours to command. My office is +well organized, and I am sure that my assistant is equal to any demands +that may be made upon him. Pray state in what manner I may serve you." + +"I am going far, I know, Mr. Ames, but I beg that you will not be in +haste to leave my aunt's house. She must have been strongly prejudiced +in your favor, or she would not have asked you here on so short +acquaintance. I am confident that she has no thought of your leaving. +She expressed her great liking for you at luncheon, and I am sure that +she will see to it that you do not lack for entertainment. I assume +that you must have gathered from what Mr. Wiggins told you of my +acquaintance with him the peculiar plight in which I am placed." + +I bowed. If she groped in the dark and needed my help in finding the +light, I was not the man to desert her. I had dropped my plumb-line +into too many dark chimneys not to feel the fascination of mystery. As +I expressed again my entire willingness to abide at Hopefield Manor as +long as she wished, the footman announced Mr. Hartley Wiggins. + +We had hardly exchanged greetings before another man was announced, and +then another. I should say that it was at intervals of about three +minutes that the sedate servant appeared in the curtained doorway and +announced a caller, until nine had been admitted. My spirits soared +high as the gentlemen from the Prescott Arms appeared one after the +other. The earlier arrivals rose to greet the later ones,--and as they +were all in evening clothes I experienced, as when I had seen the same +gentlemen in their afternoon raiment crossing the stile, a sense of +something fantastic and eerie in them. There was nothing unusual about +them, taken as individuals; collectively they were like life-size +studies in black and white that had stepped from their frames for an +evening's recreation. Cecilia introduced me in the order of their +arrival; and in the interest of brevity, and to avoid confusion, I +tabulate them here, with a notation as to their residence and +occupation, taking such data from the notebook in which, at subsequent +dates, I set down the facts which are the basis of this chronicle. + + +HARTLEY WIGGINS, Lawyer and Farmer; Hare and Tortoise Club, New York. + +LINNAEUS B. HENDERSON, Planter; Roanoke, Virginia. + +CECIL HUGH, LORD ARROWOOD, no occupation; Arrowood, Hants, England. + +DANIEL P. ORMSBY, Manufacturer of Knit Goods; Utica, New York. + +S. FORREST HUME, Lecturer on Scandinavian Literature, Occidental +University; Long Trail, Oklahoma. + +JOHN STEWART DICK, Pragmatist; Omaha, Nebraska. + +PENDENNIS J. ARBUTHNOT, Banker and Horseman; Lexington, Kentucky. + +PERCIVAL B. SHALLENBERGER, Novelist and Small Fruits; Sycamore, Indiana. + +GEORGE W. GORSE, Capitalist; Redlands, California. + + +We rose and stood in our several places when, a moment later, Miss +Octavia entered. She greeted the suitors graciously, and then, in her +most charming manner, called one after the other to sit beside her on a +long davenport, the time apportioned being weighed with nicety, so that +none might feel himself slighted or preferred. These interviews +consumed more than half an hour, and the movement thus occasioned gave +considerable animation to the scene. + +It may seem ridiculous that nine gentlemen thus paying court to a young +woman should call upon her at the same hour, but I must say that the +gravity of the suitors and the entire sobriety of Cecilia did not +affect me humorously. Nor did I feel at all out of place in this +strange company. I found myself agreeably engaged for several minutes +in discussing Ibsen with the Oklahoma professor, who proved to be a +delightful fellow. His experience of life was apparently wide, and he +told me with an engaging frankness of his meeting with the Hollisters +in France and of his pursuit of them over many weary parasangs the +previous summer. As no one had elected his courses in the university +at the beginning of the fall term, he had been granted a leave of +absence, and this accounted for his freedom to press his suit at +Hopefield Manor at this season. He was a big fellow, with clean-cut +features, and bore himself with a manly determination that I found +attractive. + +He alone, I may say, of the nine men who had thus appeared in Miss +Octavia's library, met me in a cordial spirit. Even Wiggins seemed not +wholly pleased to find me there again, though he had asked me to +remain. The manner of the others expressed either disdain, suspicion, +or fierce hostility, and Lord Arrowood, who was older than the others +and a man well advanced toward middle age, glared at me so savagely +with his pale blue eyes, that I should have laughed in his face in any +other circumstances. + +When the last man rose from the davenport, Miss Octavia called me to +her side. She seemed contrite at having neglected me during the day, +but assured me that later she hoped to place an entire day at my +disposal. As we talked, the nine suitors sat in a semicircle about +Cecilia, while the group listened to an anecdotal exchange between +Professor Hume and Henderson, the Virginia planter. My opinion of +Cecilia Hollister as a girl of high spirit, able to carry off any +situation no matter how difficult, rose to new altitudes as I watched +her. If this strange wooing _en bloc_ was not to her liking, she +certainly made the best of it. She capped Henderson's best story with +a better one, in negro dialect, and no professional entertainer could +have improved upon her recital. As she finished we all joined in the +general laugh, Lord Arrowood's guffaw booming out a trifle +boisterously, when Miss Octavia quietly rose and excused herself. +About five minutes later, when the company had plunged into another +series of anecdotes, I suddenly became conscious that the fireplace, +near which I sat, had all at once begun to act strangely. Much in the +manner of its performance the previous night, it abruptly gasped and +choked; the smoke ballooned in a great swirl and then poured out into +the room. + +After my examination of the flues in the morning, I had dismissed them +from my mind, and this extraordinary behavior of the library fireplace +astounded me. It is not in reason that a perfectly normal fireplace, +built in the most approved fashion, and with chimneys that rise into as +clear an ether as October can bestow, could act so monstrously without +the intervention of some malign agency. We had discussed all the +possibilities the previous night, and I was not anxious to hear further +lay opinions. The chimney's conduct was annoying, the more so that to +my professional sense it was inexplicable. + +Lord Arrowood had retreated discreetly toward the door, and the others +had risen and stood close behind Cecilia, whose gaze was bent rather +accusingly upon me. + +A dark thought had crossed my mind. As our eyes met, I felt that she +had read my suspicions and did not wholly reject them. Henderson was +valiantly poking the logs, while one or two of the other men gave him +the benefit of their advice. I crossed the hall to the drawing-room, +but no one was there. I went back to the billiard-room, but saw +nothing of Miss Octavia. Cecilia had rung for the footman, and I +passed him in the hall on his way to answer her summons. I stopped him +with an inquiry on my lips; but I could not ask the question; even in +my perplexity as to the cause of the chimney's remarkable performances +I did not so far forget myself as to communicate my suspicion to a +servant. + +"Nothing, Thomas," I said; and the man passed on. + +It was possible, of course, that Miss Octavia knew more than she cared +to tell about the erratic ways of the library chimney, or she might +indeed be the cause of its vagaries. Sufficient time had elapsed after +her retirement from the library to allow her to gain the roof and clap +a stopper on the chimney-pot. This did not however account for the +fact that on the previous evening she had been present in the library +when the same chimney had manifested a similar sulkiness. I was still +pondering these things when I heard loud laughter from the library, and +on returning found the logs again blazing in the fireplace, from which +the smoke rose demurely in the flue. + +"This fireplace is like a geyser, Mr. Ames," said Cecilia, "and spurts +smoke at regular intervals. As I remember, the clock on the stair was +striking nine last night when the smoke poured out, and there--it is +striking nine now!" + +She tossed her head slightly; and this was, I thought, in disdain of +the suspicion that must still have shown itself a little stubbornly in +my face. + +I withdrew again in a few minutes, and followed the great chimney's +course upward. Miss Octavia's apartments were at the front of the +house, her sitting-room windows looking out upon the Italian garden. +Her doors were closed, but I knew from my examination in the morning +that the flue of her fireplace tapped the chimney that rose from the +drawing-room, and had nothing whatever to do with the library chimney. + +From the fourth floor I gained the roof, by the route followed on my +inspection of the house in the morning. The smoke from the library +chimney was rising in the crisp, still air blithely. I leaned upon the +crenelations and looked off across the hills, enjoying the loveliness +of the sky, in which the planets throbbed superbly. There was nothing +to be learned here, and I crept back to the trap-door through which I +had come, made it fast, and continued on down to the library. + +There, somewhat to my surprise, I found that in my absence all but Hume +had taken their departure. As I paused unseen in the doorway, I caught +words that were clearly not intended for my ear. + +Cecilia sat by the long table near the fireplace; Hume stood before +her, his arms folded. + +"You are kind; you do me great honor, Professor Hume, but under no +circumstances can I become your wife." + +I retreated hastily to the billiard-room, where I took a cue from the +rack and amused myself for perhaps fifteen minutes, when, hearing the +outer door close and knowing that Hume had departed with his congee, I +returned to the library. + +Cecilia sat where I had left her, and at first glance I thought she was +reading; but she turned quickly as I crossed the room. She held in her +hand an oblong silver trinket not larger than a card-case. A short +pencil similar to those affixed to dance-cards was attached to it by a +slight cord, and she had, I inferred, been making a notation of some +kind on a leaf of the silver-bound booklet. Even after she had looked +up and smiled at me, her eyes sought the page before her; then she +closed the covers and clasped the pretty toy in her hand. As though to +divert my attention she recurred at once to the chimney, in a vein of +light irony. + +"You see," she said, "there is ample reason for your remaining here. +You would hardly find anywhere else so interesting a test of your +professional powers as Hopefield Manor offers. The house is haunted +beyond question, and I can see that you are not a man to leave two +defenseless women to the mercy of a ghost who drops down chimneys at +will." + +I suffered her chaff for several minutes, then I asked point-blank:-- + +"Pardon me, but have you the slightest idea that Miss Octavia is behind +this? It is not possible that she was responsible last night; but she +was not on this floor a while ago when the smoke poured in here. I +should be glad to hear your opinion." + +"I saw that you suspected her before you left the room, Mr. Ames, and I +must say that the idea is in no way creditable to you. If you +entertain such a suspicion you must supply a motive, and just what +motive would you attribute to my Aunt Octavia in this instance?" + +Her tone and manner piqued me, or I should not have answered as I did. + +"It is possible," I said, "that some of these gentlemen who came here +to-night were not to her liking, and it may have occurred to her to get +rid of them by the obviously successful method of smoking them out." + +She rose, still clasping the little silver-backed note-book, and looked +me over with amusement in her face and eyes. + +"You are almost too ingenious, Mr. Ames. I hope that by breakfast-time +you will have some more plausible solution of the problem. Good-night." + +And so, tightly clasping the little book, she left the room. I +followed her to the door, and at the turn of the stair she glanced down +and nodded. Her face, as it hung above me for an instant, seemed +transfigured with happiness. + +But, as will appear, my adventures for the day were not concluded. + + + + +IX + +I MEET A PLAYFUL GHOST + +It was not yet ten o'clock, and I was dismayed at the thought of being +left to my own devices in this big country-house, at an hour when the +talk at the Hare and Tortoise usually became worth while. I sat down +and began to turn over the periodicals on the library table, but I was +in no mood for reading. + +The butler appeared and offered me drink, but the thought of drinking +alone did not appeal to me. I repelled the suggestion coldly; but +after I had dropped my eyes to the English review I had taken up, I was +conscious that he stood his ground. + +"Beg pardon, sir." + +"Well?" + +"Hit's a bit hod about the chimney, sir." + +The professional man in me was at once alert. The chimney's conduct +was inexplicable enough, but I was in no humor to brook the theories of +a stupid servant. Still, he might know something, so I nodded for him +to go on. + +He glanced over his shoulder and came a step nearer. + +"They say in the village, sir, that the 'ouse is 'aunted." + +"What?" + +"'Aunted, sir." + +"Who say it, James?" + +"The liveryman told the coachman, and the 'ousemaid got hit from a +seamstress. Hit's werry queer, sir." + +"Rubbish, James. I 'm amazed that a person of your station should +listen to a liveryman's gossip. There 's the chimney, it's working +perfectly. Some shift of air-currents causes it to puff a little smoke +into this room occasionally, but those things are not related to the +supernatural. We 'll find some way of correcting it in a day or two." + +"Werry good, sir. But begging pardon, the chimney hain't hall. Hit +walks, if I may so hexpress hit." + +"Walks?" I exclaimed, sitting up and throwing down my review. "What +walks?" + +"You 'ear hit, sir, hin the walls. Hit goes right through the solid +brick, most hunaccountable." + +"You hear a mouse in the walls and think it's a ghost? But you forget, +James, that this is a new house,--only a year or so old,--and spooks +don't frequent such places. If it were an old place, it might be +possible that the creaking of floors and the settling of walls would +cause uneasiness in nervous people. The ghost tradition usually rests +on some ugly fact. But here nothing of the kind is present." + +"Hit was one of 'is majesty's horfficers, sir," he answered hoarsely. + +[Illustration: "Hit was one of 'is majesty's horfficers, sir," he +answered hoarsely.] + +It flashed over me that this big stolid fellow was out of his head; but +sane or mad he was clearly greatly disturbed. It was best, I thought, +on either hypothesis, to speak to him peremptorily, and I rose, the +better to deal with the situation. + +"What nonsense is this you have in your head? You 're in the United +States, and there are n't any majesty's soldiers to deal with. You +forget that you 're not in England now." + +"But this 'ere country used to be Henglish, you may recall, sir. The +story the coachman got hin the village goes back to the hold times, +sir, when the colonies was hin rebellion, if I may so call hit, sir, +and 'is majesty's troops was puttin' down the rebellion hin these +parts. Some American rebels chased a British soldier from hover near +White Plains to these 'ere woods as they was then, and they 'anged 'im, +sir, right where this 'ere 'ouse stands, if I may make so free." + +"Ah! This is a revolutionary relic, then?" + +"You 'ave got hit, sir," he sputtered eagerly. "They 'anged the man +right 'ere where the 'ouse stands." + +"That's not a bad story, James. And what does your mistress say about +it?" + +"Well, sir; hit's the talk hin the village that that's why she bought +the place, sir. She rather fancies ghosts and the like, as you may +know, sir." + +"Be careful what you say, James. Miss Hollister is a noble and wise +lady, and you do well to give her your best service." + +"We're all fond of 'er, sir, though she's a bit troubled hin the 'ead, +if I may make so bold. She says a good ghost is a hasset." + +I did not at once catch 'asset' with an aspirate, but when he repeated +it, I laughed in spite of myself. + +"You 'd better go to bed, James. And don't encourage talk among the +other servants about this ghost. I know something about the building +of houses, and I 'll give these walls a good looking over. Good-night." + +It was apparent that my interview had not cheered him greatly. He +turned at the door, to ask if I would put out the lights, and fear was +so clearly written upon his big red face that I dismissed him sharply. + +I made myself comfortable for an hour, smoking a cigar over an article +on English politics, and while I read, a big log placidly burned itself +to ashes. I found the switch and snapped out the library lights. When +I had gained the second floor I turned off the lights in the hall +below, and as I looked down the well to make sure I had turned the +right key, the third floor lights suddenly died and I was left in +darkness. This was the least bit disconcerting. I was quite sure that +the upper lights had remained burning brightly after the darkening of +the lower hall, so that it was hardly possible that the one switch had +cut off both lights. + +Standing by the rail that guarded the well, I peered upward, thinking +that some one above me was manipulating another switch; but the silence +was as complete as the blackness. I was about to turn from the rail to +the wall to find the switch, but at this moment, as my face was still +lifted in the intentness with which I was listening, something brushed +my cheek,--something soft of touch and swift of movement. As I gripped +the rail I felt this touch once, twice, thrice. Then my hand sought +the wall madly, and with so bad an aim that it was quite a minute +before I found the switch-plate and snapped all the keys. The stair, +and the halls above and below me sprang into being again, and I stood +blinking stupidly upward. + +Though I was in a modern house thoroughly lighted by electricity, I +cannot deny that this incident, following so quickly upon the butler's +story, occasioned a moment's acute horripilation, accompanied by an +uncomfortable tremor of the legs. As already hinted, I lay no claim to +great valor. As for ghosts, I am half persuaded of their existence, +and after witnessing a presentation of Hamlet, always feel that +Shakespeare is as safe a guide in such matters as the destructive +scientific critics. + +There were various plausible explanations of the failure of the lights. +Some switch that I did not know of, perhaps in the third-floor hall, +might have been turned; or the power house in the village might have +been shifting dynamos. Either solution of the riddle was credible. +But the ghostly touch on my face could not be accounted for so readily. +Leaving the lights on, I continued to the third floor, and examined the +switch, and sought in other ways to explain these phenomena. My +composure returned more slowly than I care to confess, and I think it +was probably in my mind that the ghost of King George's dead soldier +might be lying in wait for me; but I saw and heard nothing. The doors +of the unused chambers on the third floor were closed, and I did not +feel justified in trying them. The servants were housed on this floor, +at the rear of the house, and a door that cut off their quarters proved +on examination to be tightly locked. + +The fourth floor was only a half-story, used for storage purposes. The +roof was gained, I recalled, by an iron ladder and a hatchway in a +trunk-room. I ran down to my room and found a candle, to be armed +against any further fickleness of the lights, and set out for the +fourth floor. I had changed my coat, and with a couple of candles and +a box of matches started for the roof. My courage had risen now, and I +was ready for any further adventure that the night might hold for me. +Miss Hollister and Cecilia were both in their rooms, presumably asleep; +the servants doubtless had their doors barred against ghostly visitors, +and the house was mine to explore as I pleased. + +I think I was humming slightly as I mounted the stair, which, in +keeping with the general luxuriousness that characterized the +furnishing of the house, was thickly carpeted even to the fourth floor. +I was slipping my hand along the rail, and mounting, I dare say, a +little jauntily as I screwed my courage to an unfamiliar notch, when +suddenly, midway of the first half, and just before I reached the turn +where the stair broke, the lights failed again, with startling +abruptness. This was carrying the joke pretty far, and instantly I +clapped my hand to my pocket for the box of safety-matches, dug it out, +and then in my haste dropped the lid essential to ignition, and stooped +to find it. + +The stair had narrowed on this flight, and as I sought with futile +eagerness to regain the box-lid, I could have sworn that some one +passed me. Still half-stooping, I stretched out my arms and clasped +empty air, and so suddenly had I thrown myself forward, that I lost my +balance and rolled downward the space of half a dozen treads before I +recovered myself. I was badly scared and hardly less angry at having +missed through my own clumsiness the joy of grappling with the ghost of +one of King George's soldiers; but the matches having been lost in the +pitch-darkness of the stair, I could get my bearings again only by +clinging to the stair-rail until I found the second-floor switch. I +should say that two full minutes had passed between the loss of the +matches and my flashing on of the lamps. From top to bottom the lights +shone brightly; but no one was visible and I heard no sound in any part +of the house. + +As I began to analyze my sensations during the temporary eclipse of the +lights, I was conscious of two things. The being, human or other, that +had passed me had been light of step and fleet of motion. There had +been something uncanny in the ease and speed of that passing. I was +without conviction as to its direction, whether up or down, though I +inclined to the former notion for the reason that the employment of a +concealed switch above seemed the more reasonable argument. And a +faint, an almost imperceptible scent, as of a flower, had seemed to be +a part of the passing. Mine is a sensitive nostril, and I was +confident that it did not betray me in this. The sensation stirred by +that faintest of odors had been agreeable; there was nothing suggestive +of grave-mold or cerecloth about it. There was in fact something +rather delightfully human and contemporaneous in this fellow that +pleased and reassured me. That scamp of a revolutionary British +soldier, resenting as was his right the application of hemp to his +precious neck, had still a grace in him, and a ghost who prowls +undaunted about an electric-lighted house in this twentieth century, +having his whim with the switches, cannot be an utterly bad fellow. My +respect for all who are doomed to walk the night rose as, leaving the +lights on clear to the lower hall, I gathered up my matches and started +again for the roof. The trunk-room door opened readily, as on my +morning inspection of the chimney-pots, but as I glanced up, I saw that +the hatch was open. Through the aperture shone the heavens, a square +of stars, and bright with the moon's radiance. Pocketing my matches, I +ran nimbly up the ladder. + + + + +X + +MY BEFUDDLEMENT INCREASES + +I had been surprised to find the hatch open, but it is not too much to +say that I was greatly astonished by what I saw on the moon-flooded +roof. There, midway of a flat area that lay between the two larger +chimney-pots, two persons were intently engaged, not in ghostly +promenading or posturing, or even in audible conversation, but in a +spirited bout with foils! The clicking and scraping of the steel +testified unmistakably to the reality of their presence. And I was +grateful for those sounds! It needed only silence to tumble me back +down the trap with chattering teeth, but these were beyond question +corporeal beings, albeit rendered weird and fantastical by the oddity +of their playground and the soft effulgence of the moon. The vigor of +the onset and the skill of the antagonists held me spellbound. I stood +with head and shoulders thrust through the opening, staring at this +unusual spectacle, and not sure but that after all my eyes were +tricking me. + +"_Touche!_" + +It was a woman's voice, faint from breathlessness. She threw off her +mask and dropped her foil, and with a most human and feminine gesture +put up her hands to adjust her hair. It was Cecilia Hollister, in a +short skirt and fencing coat! + +Her opponent was a man, and as he too flung off his mask I saw that he +was a gentleman of years. If Miss Cecilia Hollister chose to meet +strange men on the roof of her aunt's house and practice the fencer's +art with them, it was no affair of mine, and I was about to withdraw +when the stranger swung round and saw me. His sudden exclamation +caused the girl to turn, and as a reasonable frankness has always +seemed to me essential to a nice discretion, I crawled out on the roof. + +"I beg your pardon, Miss Hollister, but if I had known you were here I +should not have intruded. The vagaries of the library chimney have +been on my mind, and I was about to have another peep into yonder pot." + +She stood at her ease, with one hand resting lightly against the +inexplicable chimney in question, and still somewhat spent from her +exercise. + +[Illustration: She stood at her ease, with one hand resting lightly +against the inexplicable chimney.] + +"Father," she said, turning to the stranger who stood near, "this is +Mr. Ames, who is Aunt Octavia's guest." + +The light of the gibbous moon enabled me to discern pretty clearly the +form and features of Mr. Bassford Hollister. And I find, in looking +over my notes, that I accepted as a matter of course the singular +meeting with my hostess's brother. I had grown so used to the ways of +the Hollisters I already knew, that the meeting with another member of +the family at eleven o'clock at night on the roof of this remarkable +house gave me no great shock of surprise. He was tall, slender and +dark, with fine eyes that suggested Cecilia's. His close-trimmed beard +was slightly gray: but he bore himself erect, and I had already seen +that he was alert of arm and eye and nimble of foot. + +He put on his coat, which had been lying across one of the +crenelations, and covered his head with a small soft hat. + +"This will do for to-night, Cecilia. You had the best of me. We 'll +try again another time. I 'm glad you stopped us, Mr. Ames. We 'd had +enough." + +He seemed in no wise disturbed by my appearance, nor in any haste to +leave. This meeting between the father and daughter, I reasoned, could +hardly have been a matter of chance, and it must have been in Cecilia's +mind that some sort of explanation would not be amiss. + +"Father and I have fenced together for years," she said. "My sister +Hezekiah does not care for the sport. As you have already seen that my +aunt Octavia is an unusual woman, given to many whims, I will not deny +to you that at present my father is _persona non grata_ in this house. +I beg to assure you that nothing to his discredit or mine has +contributed to that situation, nor can our meeting here to-night be +construed as detrimental to him or to me. In meeting my father in this +way I have in a sense broken faith with my aunt Octavia, but I assure +you, Mr. Ames, that it is only the natural affection for a daughter +that led my father to seek me here in this clandestine fashion." + +Cecilia had spoken steadily, but her voice broke as she concluded, and +she walked quickly toward the hatchway. Her father stepped before me +to give her his hand through the opening. + +I withdrew to the edge of the roof while a few words passed between +them that seemed to be on his part an expostulation and on hers an +earnest denial and plea. He passed her the foils and masks and she +vanished; whereupon he addressed himself to me. + +"I had learned from both my daughters of your presence in my sister's +house, and I had expected to meet you, sooner or later. This is a +strange business, a strange business." + +He had drawn out a pipe, which he filled and lighted dexterously. The +flame of his match gave me better acquaintance with his face. He +leaned against the serrated roof-guard with the greatest composure, his +hat tilted to one side, and drew his pipe to a glow. I had not +forgotten my encounter with the ghost on the stair, and as I waited for +him to speak, I was trying to identify him with the mysterious agency +that had tampered with the lights, and passed so ghostly a hand across +my face in the stair-well. I could hardly say that there had not been +time for either Bassford Hollister or his daughter to have reached the +roof after my experiences on the stair; and yet they had been engaged +so earnestly at the moment of my appearance at the hatchway that it was +improbable that either could have played ghost and flown to the roof +before I reached it. And eliminating the ghost altogether, I had yet +to learn how Bassford Hollister had gained entrance to the house. It +seemed best to drop speculations and wait for him to declare himself. + +"You must understand, Mr. Ames, that my daughters, both of them, are +very dear to me. It is the great grief of my life that owing to +matters beyond my control I have been unable to care for them as I +should like to do. This being the case, I have been obliged to allow +them to accept many favors from my only sister Octavia. This in +ordinary circumstances would not be repugnant to my pride; but my +sister is a very unusual person. She must do for my children in her +own way, and while I was prepared, in agreeing that they should accept +her bounty, for some whimsical manifestation of her eccentric +character, I did not imagine that she would go so far as to shut me out +from all knowledge of her plans for them. That, Mr. Ames, is what has +happened." + +His voice rose and fell mournfully. He puffed his pipe for a moment +and continued:-- + +"Cecilia, being the older, was to be launched first. Hezekiah was to +be cared for in due season. Last summer Octavia took them both abroad. +As you are aware, they are young women of unusual distinction of +appearance and manner, and they attracted a great deal of attention. +From what I hear, a troop of suitors followed them about. That sort of +thing would appeal to Octavia; to me it is most repellent, but I had +already committed myself, agreeing that Octavia should manage in her +own fashion. There is now something forward here which I do not +understand. I have an idea that Octavia has contrived some +preposterous scheme for choosing a husband for Cecilia that is in +keeping with her odd fashion of transacting all her business. I do not +know its nature, and by the terms of her agreement Cecilia is not to +disclose the method to be employed to me,--not even to me, her own +father. You must agree, Ames, that that is rather rubbing it in." + +"But you don't assume that your daughter is not to be a free agent in +the matter? You don't believe that some unworthy and improper man is +to be forced upon her?" + +"That, sir, is exactly what I fear!" + +"You will pardon me, but I cannot for a moment believe that Miss +Hollister would risk her niece's happiness even to satisfy her own +peculiar humor. Your sister is a shrewd woman, and her heart, I am +convinced, is the kindest. Among the suitors now camped at the +Prescott Arms there must be some one whom your daughter approves, and I +see no reason why he should not ultimately be her choice. Now that you +have broached the matter, I make free to say that one of these suitors +is an old friend of mine. Hartley Wiggins by name, and that he is a +man of the highest character and a gentleman in the strictest sense." + +He had been listening to me with the greatest composure, but at the +mention of Wiggins's name he started and nervously clutched my arm. + +"That man may be all that you say," he cried chokingly, "but he has +acted infamously toward both my daughters. He is a rogue, and a most +despicable fellow. He has flirted outrageously with Hezekiah while at +the same time pretending to be deeply interested in Cecilia. I say to +you in all candor that a man who will trifle with the affections of a +child like Hezekiah is a villain, nothing less." + +"But, my dear sir, is it not possible that you do him a great wrong? +May it not be the other way round, that Hezekiah is trifling with +Wiggins's affections? He 's a splendid fellow, Hartley Wiggins, but he +'s a little slow, that's all. And between two superb young women like +your daughters a man may be pardoned for doubts and hesitations; a case +of being happy with either if t'other dear charmer were only away. To +put it quite concretely, I will say that in my own very slight +acquaintance with these young women I feel the spell of both. Your +sister, I take it, is anxious not to show partiality for any of these +men, and yet I dare say she probably feels kindly disposed toward +Wiggins. His worst crime seems to be that he chose Tory ancestors! +The thing is bound to straighten itself out." + +He tossed his head impatiently. + +"Has it occurred to you that Octavia's interest in this Hartley Wiggins +may be due to a trifling and immaterial fact?" + +"Nothing beyond his indubitable eligibility." + +"Then let me tell you what I suspect. Both his names contain seven +letters. My sister is slightly cracked as to the number seven. I +swear to you my belief that the fact that his names contain seven +letters each is at the bottom of all this. Incredible, my dear sir, +but wholly possible!" + +"Then, such being the case, why does n't she show her hand openly? If +she believes that Wiggins with his septenary names is ordained by the +seven original pleiades to marry your daughter Cecilia, I should think +that by the same token she would have sought a man rejoicing in the +noble name of Septimus. You send conjecture far when once you +entertain so absurd an idea." + +"You think my assumption unlikely?" he asked eagerly. + +"I certainly do, Mr. Hollister. But I confess that I had never counted +the letters in Wiggins's name before, and your suggestion is +interesting. And this whole idea of the potential seven in our affairs +has possibilities. If seven at all, why is n't it possible that your +sister has Jacob in mind and the seven years he served for Rachel? You +may as well assume that, as Wiggins is specially favored in the number +of letters in his singularly prosaic and unromantic name, it is Miss +Hollister's plan to keep him dallying seven years." + +He seized me by the arm and forced me back against the battlements, +then stood off and eyed me fiercely. + +"You speak of serving and of service! Will you tell me just why you +are here and what brings you into this affair! My daughter Hezekiah is +the frankest person alive, and she told me of her meetings with you and +that you had been to the Asolando,--where she spent a day in the +sheerest spirit of mischief. That was the beginning of all our +troubles, that damned hole with its insane confectionery and poetry. +If Cecilia, in a misguided notion of earning her own living, had not +gone there and worn an apron for a week before I dragged her out, she +would never have met Wiggins. And now will you kindly tell me just +what you are doing in my sister's house, where I have to come like a +thief in the night to see one of my own children?" + +This fierce deliverance touched me nearly: I doubted my ability to +explain to one of these amazing Hollisters just how I came to be +sojourning in the house of another of the family without any business +that would bear scrutiny. I hastened to declare my profession, and +that I had been summoned by Miss Hollister to examine her chimneys. I +could not, however, tell him that until my arrival the chimneys had +behaved themselves admirably! + +"You've admitted your friendship for this Wiggins person; that's +enough," he said when I had concluded. "I advise you to leave the +house at once. I tell you he 's got to be eliminated from the +situation. Understand, that I do not threaten you with violence, but I +will not promise to abstain from visiting heavy punishment upon that +fellow. And you? A chimney-doctor? I am a man of considerable +knowledge of the world, and I say to you very candidly that I don't +believe there is any such profession." + +"Then let me tell you," I replied, not without heat, "that I am a +graduate in architecture, and that if you will do me the honor to +consult a list of the alumni of the Institute of Technology, you will +find that I was graduated there not without credit. And as for +remaining in this house, I beg to inform you, Mr. Hollister, that as I +am your sister's guest and as she is perfectly competent to manage her +own affairs, I shall stay here as long as it pleases her to ask me to +remain. And now, one other matter. How did you gain this roof +to-night, when by your own admission you are not on such terms with +your sister as would justify you in entering it openly?" + +The moonlight did not fail to convey the contempt in his face, but I +thought he grinned as he answered quietly:-- + +"You don't seem to understand, young man, that you are entitled to no +explanations from me. If my sister has her sense of a joke, I assure +you that I have mine. I came here to see my daughter. As I taught her +to fence when she was ten years old and as she is particularly expert, +and moreover, as in my present condition of poverty I have been obliged +to forego the pleasure of metropolitan life and to give up my +membership in the Fencers' Club, you can hardly deny my right to meet +my own daughter for a brief bout anywhere I please. You strike me as a +singularly fresh young person. It would be a positive grief to me to +feel that my conduct had displeased you. And now, as the night grows +chill, I shall beg you to precede me into the house by the way you +came." + +"But first," I persisted, "let me ask a question. It is possible that +you yourself have some preference among your daughter's several +suitors, Mr. Hollister. Would you object to telling me which one you +would choose for Miss Cecilia?" + +"Beyond question, the man for Cecilia, if I have any voice in the +matter, is Lord Arrowood." + +"Arrowood!" I exclaimed. "You surprise me greatly. I saw him at the +inn, and he seemed to me the most insignificant and uninteresting one +of the lot." + +"That proves you a person of poor gifts of discernment, Mr. Ames;" and +his tone and manner were quite reminiscent of his sister's ways; and +his further explanation proved him even more worthily the brother of +his sister. + +"As I was obliged," he began, "owing to an unfortunate physical +handicap, to abandon my art, that of a marine painter, I have given my +attention for a number of years to the study of the Irish situation. +Between the various political parties of Great Britain, poor Ireland +can never regain her ancient power. But I see no reason why she should +not become once more a free and independent nation. I have gone deeply +into Irish history, and I may modestly say that I probably know that +history from the time of the Anglo-Norman invasion to the death of +Gladstone better than any other living man. I met Arrowood by chance +in the highway yesterday, and I found that he holds exactly my ideas." + +"But Arrowood isn't an Irishman," I interjected; "neither, I should +say, are you!" + +"That's not to the point. Neither was Napoleon a Frenchman strictly +speaking; nor was Lafayette an American. A friend of mine in Wall +Street is ready, when the time is ripe, to finance the scheme by +selling bonds to the multitudes of Irish office-holders throughout the +United States,--most of whom are not unknown to the banks." + +"And I suppose you and Arrowood would sit jointly in the seat of the +ancient kings in Dublin after you had effected your _coup_." + +"You lose your bet, Mr. Ames. We have agreed that, as the mayors of +Boston for many years have been Irishmen, and as they have, by their +prowess in holding the natives in subordination, demonstrated the +highest political sagacity, we could not do better than take one of +these rulers of the old Puritan capital and place him on the Irish +throne. The keen humor of that move would so tickle all interested +powers, that the investiture and coronation of the new ruler would be +accomplished without firing a shot." + +This certainly had the true Hollister touch! Miss Octavia herself +could not have devised a more delightful scheme. + +"And so," Mr. Bassford Hollister concluded, "I naturally incline toward +Arrowood, though he is so poor that he was obliged to come over in the +steerage to continue his wooing of my daughter." + +He let himself down into the dark trunk-room, waited for me +courteously, and walked by my side to the stairway, both of us +maintaining silence. I was deeply curious to know how he had entered +and whether he expected to go down the front way and out the main door. +We kept together to the third-floor hall,--I could have sworn to that; +then suddenly, just as we reached the stairway, out went the lights, +and we were in utter darkness. I smothered an exclamation, clutched my +matches and struck a light, and as the stick flamed slowly, I looked +about for Bassford Hollister; but he had vanished as suddenly and +completely as though a trap had yawned beneath us and swallowed him. I +found the third-floor switch and it responded immediately, flooding the +stair-well to the lower hall, but I neither saw nor heard anything more +of Hollister. + +Astounded by this performance, I continued on to the lower floor to +have a look around, and there, calmly reading by the library table, sat +Miss Octavia! + +"Late hours, Mr. Ames!" she cried. "I supposed you had retired long +ago." + +I was still the least bit ruffled by that last transaction on the +stair, and I demanded a little curtly:-- + +"Pardon my troubling you; but may I inquire, Miss Hollister, how long +you have been sitting here?" + +The clock on the stair began to strike twelve, and she listened +composedly to a few of the deep-toned strokes before replying. + +"Just half an hour. I thought some one knocked at my door about an +hour ago. The lights were on and I came down, saw a magazine that had +escaped my eye before, and here you find me." + +"Some one knocked at your door?" + +"I thought so. You know, the servants have an idea that the place is +haunted, and I thought that if I sat here the ghost might take it upon +himself to walk. I confess to a slight disappointment that it is only +you who have appeared. I suppose it was n't you who knocked at my +door?" + +"No," I replied, laughing a little at her manner, "not unless it was +you who switched off the lights as I was coming down from the fourth +floor. I have been studying this chimney from the roof. I know +something of the ways of electric switches, and they don't usually move +of their own accord." + +"Your coming to this house has been the greatest joy to me, Mr. Ames. +I should not have imagined, in a chance look at you, that you were +psychical, and yet such is clearly the fact. I assure you that I have +not touched any switch since I left my room. It was unnecessary, as I +found the lights on. And I acquit you of rapping, rapping at my +chamber-door. It gives me the greatest satisfaction to assume that the +house is haunted, and at any time you find the ghost, I beg that you +will lose no time in presenting me. If the prowler is indeed one of +King George's soldiers, hanged during the Revolution on the site of +this house, I should like to have words with him. I have just been +reading an article on the political corruption in Philadelphia in this +magazine. It bears every evidence of truth, but if half of it is +fiction I still feel that, as an American citizen, though denied the +inalienable right of representation assured me in the Constitution, we +owe that ghost an apology; for certainly nothing was gained by throwing +off the British yoke, and that poor soldier died in a worthy cause." + +She wore a remarkable lavender dressing-gown, and a night-cap such as I +had never seen outside a museum. As she concluded her speech, spoken +in that curious lilting tone which, from the beginning, had left me in +doubt as to the seriousness of all her statements, she rose and, still +clasping her magazine, made me a courtesy and was soon mounting the +stair. + +I heard her door close a minute later, and then, feeling that I had +earned the right to repose, I went to my room and to bed. + + + + +XI + +I PLAY TRUANT + +I slept late, and on going down found the table set in the +breakfast-room. A pleasant inadvertence marked the choice of +eating-places at Hopefield Manor; I was never quite sure where I should +find a table spread. No one was about, and I was seized with that mild +form of panic familiar to the guest who finds himself late to a meal. +As I paused uncertainly in the door, viewing the table, set, I noticed, +for only one person, Miss Octavia entered briskly, her slight figure +concealed by a prodigious gingham apron. + +"Good-morrow, merry gentleman," she began blithely. "The most +delightful thing has happened. Without the slightest warning, without +the faintest intimation of their dissatisfaction, the house-servants +have departed, with the single exception of my personal maid, who, +being a Swede and therefore singularly devoid of emotion, was unshaken +by the ghost-rumors that have sent the rest of my staff scampering over +the hills." + +She lighted the coffee-machine lamp in her most tranquil fashion, and +begged me to be seated. + +"I have already breakfasted," she continued, "and Cecilia is even now +preparing you an omelet with her own hand. I beg to reassure you, as +my guest, that the _emeute_ of the servants causes me not the slightest +annoyance. From reading the comic papers you may have gained an +impression that the loss of servants is a tragic business in any +household, but nothing so petty can disturb me. Cecilia is an +excellent cook; and I myself shall not starve so long as I have +strength to crack an egg or lift a stove-lid. And besides, I still +retain my early trust in Providence. I do not doubt that before +nightfall a corps of excellent servants will again be on duty here. +Very likely they are even now bound for this place, coming from the wet +coasts of Ireland, from Liverpool, from lonely villages in Scandinavia. +The average woman would merely fret herself into a sanatorium if +confronted with the problem I face this morning, but I hope you will +testify in future to the fact that I faced this day in the cheeriest +and most hopeful spirit." + +"Not only shall I do so, Miss Hollister," I replied, trying to catch +her own note, "but it will, throughout my life, give me the greatest +satisfaction to set your cause aright. To that extent let me be +Horatio to your Hamlet." + +"Thank you, milord," she returned, with the utmost gravity. "And may I +say further that the incident gives the stamp of authenticity to my +ghost? I was obliged to pay those people double wages to lure them +from the felicities of the city, and they must have been a good deal +alarmed to have left so precipitately. You must excuse me now, as it +is necessary for me to do the pastry-cook's work this morning, that +individual having fled with the rest, and it being incumbent on me, to +maintain my fee-simple in this property, to make a dozen pies before +high noon. But first I must visit the stables, where I believe the +coachman still lingers, having been prevented from joining the stampede +of the house-servants by the painful twinges of gout." + +With this she left me, and I began pecking at a grape-fruit. It had +been in my mind as I dressed that morning to play truant and visit the +city. It was almost imperative that I take a look at my office, and I +had resolved upon a plan which would, I believed, give me the key to +the ghost mystery. If Pepperton had built that house he must know +whether he had contrived any secret passages that would afford exits +and entrances not apparent to the eye. It would be an easy matter to +run into the city, explain myself to my assistant, and get hold of +Pepperton. My mind was made up, and I had even consulted a time-table +and chosen one of the express trains. As I sat at the table absorbed +in my plans for the day, my nerves received a sudden shock. I had +heard no one enter, yet a voice at my shoulder murmured casually: + + "Hast thou seen ghosts? Hast thou at midnight heard"-- + + +It was the voice of Hezekiah, I knew, before I faced her. She wore a +blue sailor-waist with a broad red ribbon tied under the collar, and a +blue tam o' shanter capped her head. She bore a tray that contained my +omelet, a plate of toast, and other sundries incidental to a +substantial breakfast, which she distributed deftly upon the table. + +"How did you get here?" I blurted, my nerves still out of control. + +"The kitchen door, sir. I had ridden into the garden, and seeing Aunt +Octavia heading for the stables and Cecilia at the kitchen window, I +pedaled boldly in. Cecilia wanted to borrow my bicycle, and being a +good little sister, I gave it to her. She also said that you required +food, so I told her to go and I would carry you your breakfast. I +shall skip myself in a minute. You may draw your own coffee. Mind the +machine; it tips if you are n't careful." + +She went to the window and peered out toward the stables. + +"May I ask, Daughter of Kings, where your sister has gone so suddenly?" + +"Certainly. She 's off for town to chase a cook and a few other people +to run this hotel. I heard at the post-office that the whole camp had +deserted, so I ran over to see what was doing; and just for that I 've +got to walk home." + +"But your aunt said that Providence would take care of the servant +question; she expected a whole corps of ideal servants to come straying +in during the day." + +Hezekiah laughed. (It is not right for any girl to be as pretty as +Hezekiah, or to laugh as musically.) She told me to sit down, and as I +did so she passed the toast and helped herself to a slice into which +she set her fine white teeth neatly, watching me with the merriest of +twinkles in her brown eyes. + +"Cecilia has n't Aunt Octavia's confidence in Providence, so she 's +taking a shot at the employment agencies. She has left a note on the +kitchen table to inform Aunt Octavia that she had forgotten an +engagement with the dentist and has gone to catch the ten-eighteen." + +"That, Hezekiah, is a lie. It isn't quite square to deceive your aunt +that way," I remarked soberly. + +Hezekiah laughed again. + +"You absurdity! Don't you know Aunt Octavia yet! She will be +perfectly overjoyed when she comes back and finds that note from +Cecilia. She likes disappearances, mysteries, and all that kind of +thing. But it is barely possible that you will have to wash the +dishes. I can't, you see, for I 'm not supposed to come on the +reservation at all--not until Cecilia has found a husband. Is n't it +perfectly delicious?" + +"All of that, Daughter of Kings! I think that as soon as I can regain +confidence in my own sanity I shall like it myself. But,"--and I +watched her narrowly,--"you see, Hezekiah, there is really a ghost, you +know." + +Once more that divine mirth in her bubbled mellowly. She had walked +guardedly to the window and turned swiftly with a mockery of fear in +her face. + +"Aunt Octavia approaches, and I must be off. But that ghost, Mr. +Chimney-Man,--when you find him, please let me know. There are a lot +of things I want to ask some reliable ghost about the hereafter." + +With this she fled, and I heard the front door close smartly after her. +An instant later Miss Octavia appeared and asked solicitously how I +liked my omelette. + +"The coachman has been telling me a capital ghost-story. He believes +them to be beneficent and declares that he will under no circumstances +leave my employment." + +She sat down and folded her arms upon the table. For the first time I +believed that she was serious. There was, in fact, a troubled look on +her sweet, whimsical face. It occurred to me that the loss of her +servants was not really the slight matter she had previously made of it. + +"Mr. Ames, will you pardon me for asking you a question of the most +intimate character? It is only after much hesitation that I do so." + +I bowed encouragingly, my curiosity fully aroused. + +"You may ask me anything in the world, Miss Hollister." + +"Then I wish you would tell me whether,--I can't express the dislike I +feel in doing this,--but can you tell me whether you have seen in the +hands of my niece Cecilia a small--a very small, silver-backed +note-book." + +"Yes, I have," I answered, greatly surprised. + +"And may I ask whether,--and again I must plead my deep concern as an +excuse for making such an inquiry,--whether you by any chance saw her +making any notation in that book?" + +I recalled the silver-bound book perfectly, but had attached no +importance to it; but if Cecilia's fortunes were so intimately related +to it as Miss Hollister's manner implied, I felt that I must be careful +of my answer. I was trying to recall the precise moment at which I had +entered the library the preceding evening after Hume's departure, and +while I was intent upon this my silence must have been prolonged. I +felt obliged to make an answer of some sort, and yet I did not relish +the thought of conveying information that might distress and embarrass +a noble girl like Cecilia Hollister. Something in my face must have +conveyed a hint of this inner conflict to Miss Hollister, for she rose +suddenly, holding up her hand as though to silence me. She seemed +deeply moved, and cried in agitation:-- + +"Do not answer me! The question was quite unfair,--quite unfair,--and +yet I assure you that at the moment I made the inquiry, I felt +justified." + +She retreated toward the door as I rose; and then with her composure +fully restored she courtesied gracefully. + +"Luncheon here will be a buffet affair to-day, as I shall be engaged +with matters of pastry. I'm sure, however, that you will find +employment until dinner-time, when my house will be fully in order +again." + +I intended that this should be a busy day, so without making +explanations I went to the stable, told the coachman I wished to be +driven to the station, and was soon whizzing over the hills toward +Katonah. The coachman, an Irishman, introduced the subject of the +ghost as soon as we were out of sight of the house. + +"The ole lady's dipped; she's dipped, sir," he remarked leadingly. + +"It's catching," I answered; "so you'd better forget it." + +He thereupon settled glumly to his driving. As we crossed the bridge +near where I had first encountered Hezekiah in the apple-orchard, I +spied her trudging across a meadow, and she waved her hand gaily. +Meadows and streams and stars! Of such were Hezekiah's kingdom. + +I wondered how Wiggins and the other gentlemen at the Prescott Arms +were faring. My question was partially answered a second later, as we +passed the road that forked off to the inn. On a stone by the roadside +sat Lord Arrowood, desolately guarding a kit-bag and a suit-case. He +was dressed in a shabby Norfolk jacket and knickerbockers, and sucked a +pipe. + +[Illustration: On a stone by the roadside sat Lord Arrowood.] + +I bade the driver pause, and greeted the nobleman affably. + +"Can I give you a lift? You seem to be bound for the station, and I'm +taking a train myself." + +"No, thanks," he replied sharply. "They're a lot of +bounders,--bounders, I say!" + + + + +"Ah! Of whom do you speak, Lord Arrowood?" I asked glancing at my +watch. + +"Those scoundrels at the inn. They have thrown me out. Thrown me +out--me!" + +"Hard lines, for a fact; but if you are interested in trains"-- + +"I refuse to leave the county!" he shouted. "If they think they're +going to get rid of me they're mistaken. Bounders, I say, bounders!" + +He uttered this opprobrious term with great bitterness, and crossed his +legs, as though to emphasize his permanence upon the boulder. Patience +on a monument is not more eternally planted. He seemed in no mood for +conversation, so I sped on, with no time to lose. + +I gained the step of the chair-car attached to the ten-eighteen with +some loss of dignity, the porter yanking me aboard under the +conductor's scornful eye. The Katonah passengers were still in the +aisle, and as I surveyed them I saw Cecilia take a seat in the middle +of the car. She was just unfolding a newspaper when I moved to a seat +behind her and bade her good-morning. + +The look she gave me in turning round had in it something of Hezekiah's +quizzical humor. This interested me, because I had not previously seen +any but the most superficial resemblance between the sisters. Her +cheeks were aglow from her sprint on the wheel. The short skirt and +the shirt waist are the true vesture of emancipated woman. Cecilia +Hollister, whose apparel at home had struck me as rather formal, seemed +this morning quite a new being. She drew a folded veil from the pocket +of her jacket, removed her hat, and pinned the veil to it. She kept +the hat in her lap, however, and went on talking. + +"We are both truants. You must have breakfasted in a hurry to have +caught this train." + +"Not at all. I enjoyed a brief conversation with your sister, and +after she had gone, your aunt came back and lingered for a moment." + +"She told you, I suppose, that Providence would look after the servant +question." + +"She did, just that." + +"Well, Providence is hardly equal to getting enough servants to run +that place, so I'm going to assist Providence a little." + +"You become the vicaress of Providence? I admire your spirit." + +"It's mere self-preservation. Aunt Octavia would have me chained to +the kitchen if I did n't do something about it." + +She had permitted me to settle with the conductor, and when I had +completed this transaction I found that she had drawn from her purse +the little silver booklet about which Miss Octavia had inquired so +anxiously. She held this close to her eyes, so that I had a clear view +of the silver backs, on one of which "C.H." was engraved in neat +script. The subjoined pencil she held poised ready for use, touching +the tip of it absent-mindedly to her tongue. She raised her eyes with +the far-away look still in them. + +"Can you tell me how to spell Arrowood,--is it one or two w's?" + +"One, I think the noble lord uses." + +She seemed to write the name, and I saw her counting on her fingers, +touching them lightly on the open page of the book. + +Then she dropped it into her purse, which she thrust back carefully +into her pocket. She sighed, and was silent for a moment. We were +passing a series of huge signs built like a barricade along the right +of way, and on one of these I observed with fresh interest an +advertisement whose counterpart I had seen often about New York, but +without ever observing it attentively. It drew a laugh from me now. +It represented an infant in a perambulator, behind which stood the +effigy of a capped and aproned nurse. A legend was inscribed on the +board to this effect:-- + + HUSH! Baby's asleep. + It's a HOLLISTER PERAMBULATOR! + + +"If it's a Hollister," I remarked as a second of these flew by the +window, "it's perfect." + +"Oh, those things!" she exclaimed. + +"I was n't referring to the perambulator necessarily. Anything that's +Hollister must be good." + +"We're out of the business, except that Aunt Octavia gets a dollar for +every one that's made; but the trust keeps the name." + +"The trust could hardly change your name. You will have to do that +yourself." + +"You've been talking to Hezekiah. That's the way people always talk to +her." + +"It's certainly not the way I've been talking to you; but we've run +away from school, and I'm disposed to make the most of it. Our +conversation at your aunt's has been so high up in the air, that it's +pleasant to come down to earth and tune it to the less strenuous note +of a twentieth-century railway journey." + +"That, Mr. Ames, may depend upon the point of view." + +"But you will make it yours, won't you? You see, I've always dreamed +of adventures, but since I met your aunt in the Asolando they've been +coming a little too fast. There's that ghost business. Now I 'm going +to catch that ghost to-night, if it's the last thing I do!" + +"Well, I'm not the ghost, and neither is my father, if that's what's in +your mind. Tell me just what you have seen and heard." + +I gave her the story in detail, and my recital seemed to amuse her +greatly. + +"You thought it was Aunt Octavia herself at first, then you thought I +was the spook, and now you are not fully persuaded that it is not my +father. I will take you into my confidence this far--that I don't know +how father got into the house last night. He wrote a note asking me to +meet him on the roof and bring the foils. That was not unlike him, as +he is the dearest father in the world, and his whims are just as jolly +in their way as Aunt Octavia's. I was sure that Aunt Octavia had +retired for the night, so I changed my dress and carried the foils up +through the trunk-room. I had hardly reached there before my father +appeared. The whole situation--my being there and all that--has +distressed father a great deal; so I let you see me cry a little. I +promise never to do it again." + +Mirth brightened the eyes she turned upon me now. + +"You think," she asked, "that those lights could n't have winked out +twice by themselves while you were on the stairway." + +"I am positive of it. And somebody--a being of some sort--passed me on +the stairway. It might imaginably have been you!" + +"But I tell you positively it was not." + +"Then it might have been your father. A man who can enter a house at +will might easily play any manner of other tricks. His disappearance +after I had gone down into the house with him was just as mysterious as +the ghost." + +"It was natural for father not to want you to know how he got in; the +motive for that would be the fact that he is not supposed to see me or +communicate with me in any way. But you 've got to get a +ghost-_motif_." + +"I think I have one," I said. + +"Then all the rest is easy. To whom does this ghost-_motif_ lead you?" + +"I need hardly say; for it must have occurred to you that there is one +member of the Hollister family we have n't mentioned in this +connection." + +"If you mean Hezekiah"-- + +"None other!" + +The surprise in her face was not feigned,--I was confident of +this,--and the questions evoked by my answer at once danced in her eyes. + +"If Hezekiah should be caught in the house just now we should all pay +dearly for her rashness. Believe me, this is true. Some day you may +know the whys and wherefores; at present no one may know. There is +this, however,--if Hezekiah or my father should be found at Hopefield +Manor, anywhere on the premises, while I am there, the consequences +would be disastrous,--more so than I dare tell you. But why should +Hezekiah wish to prowl about there at night,--to assume for a moment +that she is doing it?" + +Her manner was wholly earnest. It was plain that she had entered into +some sort of a compact with her aunt, and no doubt the arrangement was +in the characteristic whimsical vein of which I had enjoyed personal +experience. I did not wish to press Cecilia for explanations she might +not be free to make, but I ventured a suggestion or two. + +"Hezekiah may be entering the house and playing ghost for amusement, +merely in a spirit of childish rebellion against the interdiction that +forbids her the house. That is quite plausible, Hezekiah being the +spirited young person we know her to be. And it may amuse her, too, to +plug the chimneys at a time when her sister is enjoying the visits of +suitors. Without quite realizing that such was her animus, she may be +the least,--the very least bit jealous!" + +Cecilia flushed and her eyes flashed indignantly. She bent toward me +eagerly. + +"Please do not say such a thing! You must not even think it!" + +"She may be a little forlorn, alone in your father's house over the +hills at times when you are surrounded by admirers, and it is my +assumption from what I have learned in one way and another of your +flight abroad last summer, that some of these gentlemen now established +at the Prescott Arms are known to her." + +"Oh, all of them, certainly." + +"And Hartley Wiggins among the rest?" + +"That, Mr. Ames, is most unkind," she declared earnestly. "She has +told me that she was not in the least interested in Mr. Wiggins." + +"And she told me the same thing, but I do not feel sure of it! But +what if she is! You are not really interested in him yourself!" + +In the library at Hopefield Manor I should not have thought of speaking +to Cecilia Hollister in any such fashion; but the flying train gave +wings to my daring. I was surprised at my own temerity, and more +surprised that she did not seem to resent my new manner of speech. She +did not, however, vouchsafe any reply to my statement, but changed the +subject abruptly. + +My description of the ghost had taken considerable time, and we were +now running through the tunnels and would soon be at the end of our +journey. She put on her hat and veil without making it necessary for +us to discontinue our talk. A certain languor that had marked her at +her aunt's vanished. There was a clearer light in her eye, and as I +helped her into her coat I felt that here was a woman to whose high +qualities I had done scant justice. + +"I count on finishing my errand and taking the two-seven," she remarked. + +"That's a short time to allow yourself. I've heard that it's a dreary +business chasing the employment agencies." + +"Not if you know where not to go. If you 'll get me a machine of some +sort I 'll be off at once." + +"I fear I shan't conclude my own business so soon; but if you will +honor me at luncheon?"-- + +This last was at the door of a taxicab I had found for her. + +"Sorry, Mr. Ames, but it's out of the question. I hope to see you at +dinner to-night. And please"-- + +"Yes, Miss Hollister"-- + +"Please remember that you are Aunt Octavia's guest, and don't annoy her +by failing to appear at dinner. You know you have n't fixed that +chimney yet!" + +Her smile left me well in the air; I stood staring after the very +commonplace cab as it rolled away with her, my mind a whirling chaos of +emotion. The crowd jostled me impatiently; for other people, not +breathing celestial ether from an hour of Cecilia Hollister's society, +were bent upon the day's business. + +I set off at once for Pepperton's office, where I learned that the +architect was out of town; but his chief clerk greeted me courteously. +I told him frankly that I wanted to look at the plans of Hopefield +Manor to enable me to learn the exact lines of the chimneys. He +confessed surprise that they were causing trouble, and expressed regret +that they were not in the office. + +"Miss Hollister sent for them this morning, and I have just given them +to a young woman who bore a note from her. Ordinarily I should not +have let them go, but the note was peremptory, and Miss Hollister is a +friend of Mr. Pepperton's, you know, and a person I'm sure he would not +refuse. We're at work now on plans for a cathedral she proposes +building for the Bishop of Manila." + +I was not surprised that Octavia Hollister should be building +cathedrals in the Orient,--I was beyond that,--but I was taken aback to +find that she had anticipated me in my rush for the plans of her house. +Clearly, I was dealing with a woman who was not only immensely amusing +but exceedingly shrewd as well. Could it be possible after all that +she was herself playing ghost merely for her own entertainment! She +was capable of it; but I had satisfied myself that she could not have +performed the tricks of which I had been the victim the night previous +unless she possessed some rare vanishing power like that of the East +Indian mystics. + +"May I ask who came for the plans?" + +"I judged the young woman to be a maid, or perhaps she was Miss +Hollister's secretary." + +I had given little heed during my short stay at Hopefield Manor to Miss +Hollister's personal attendant. I had passed her in the halls once or +twice, a young woman of twenty-five, I should say, fair-haired and +blue-eyed. She might herself be the ghost, now that I thought of it; +but this seemed the most unlikely hypothesis possible,--and there was +no difficulty in accounting for her flight to town, for there were many +horses and vehicles in the Hopefield stable, and trains were frequent. + +"If there is anything further, Mr. Ames"-- + +I roused myself to find the chief clerk regarding me impatiently, and I +thanked him and hurried away. + +At my own office my assistant pounced upon me wrathfully. He was half +wild over the pressure of vexatious business, and had just been +engaging in a long-distance conversation with a country gentleman at +Lenox which had left him in bad temper. I was explaining to him the +seriousness of my errands at Hopefield, rather unconvincingly I fear, +and the fact that I must return at once, when the office-boy entered my +private room to say that three gentlemen wished to see me immediately. +They had submitted cards, but had refused to state the nature of their +business. It was with a distinct sensation of surprise that I read the +names respectively of Percival B. Shallenberger, Daniel P. Ormsby, and +John Stewart Dick. + +"Show the gentlemen in," I said promptly, greatly to the disgust of my +assistant, who retired to deal with several clients whom I had passed +in the reception-room fiercely walking the floor. + +I had imagined all the suitors established at the Prescott Arms. As +the three appeared clad in light automobiling coats, I could not +forbear a smile at their grim appearance. Shallenberger, the novelist, +and Ormsby, the knit-goods manufacturer, were big men; Dick was much +shorter, though of compact and sturdy build. They growled surlily in +response to my greeting, and Ormsby closed the door behind them. Dick +seemed to be the designated spokesman, and he advanced to the desk +behind which I sat, with a stride and manner that advertised his +belligerent frame of mind. + +"Mr. Ames," he began, "we have come here to speak for ourselves and +certain other gentlemen who are staying for a time at the Prescott +Arms." + +"Gentlemen of the committee, welcome to our office," I replied, greatly +amused by his ferocity. + +My tone caused the others to draw in defensively behind him. + +"We want you to understand that your conduct in accompanying a lady +that I shall not name to the city is an act we cannot pass in silence. +Your conduct in going to Hopefield Manor was in itself an affront to +us, but your behavior this morning passes all bounds. We have come, +sir, to demand an explanation!" + +At a glance this was a situation I dare not take seriously. In any +circumstances the fact that these men had followed me to my office to +rebuke me for accompanying Cecilia Hollister to town was absurd. This +young Mr. Dick was absurd in himself. His gray cap had twisted itself +oddly to the side of his head, and a bang of black hair lay at a +piratical angle across his forehead. Behind him Ormsby, the knit-goods +man, tugged at a brown moustache; Shallenberger's blue eyes snapped +wrathfully. + +"Mr. Dick," I said soberly, "I have heard of you as the original +pragmatist of Nebraska, and as I am a mere ignorant chimney-doctor, to +whom the later philosophical meaning of that term is only so much punk, +I must identify you with that more obvious meaning of the word which is +within my grasp. Mr. Dick, and gentlemen of the committee, you are +meddlesome persons!" + +"Meddlesome!" cried Dick, heatedly, and leaning toward me across my +desk, "do I correctly understand, sir, that you mean to insult us?" + +"Nothing could be further from my purpose. But I cannot permit you to +imagine that I'm going to allow you to beard me in my office and +criticise my conduct in regard to Miss Cecilia Hollister or anybody +else. As a philosopher from the fertile corn-lands of Nebraska, I +salute you with admiration; as a critic of my ways and manners, I show +you the door!" + +This I did a bit jauntily, and I had a feeling that I was playing my +part well. But the young man before me seemed to swell with the rage +that surged within him. He broke out furiously, beating the air with +his fist. + +"You not only insult this committee, but you speak with intentional +disrespect of my native state, and of the great philosophical school of +which I am a disciple. Am I right?" + +"You are eminently right, Mr. Dick. Neither the corn, the +philosophical schools, nor the packing-house statistics of your native +Omaha interest me a particle. So far as I am personally concerned you +may go back to your wigwam on the tawny Missouri as soon as you please." + +"Then," he broke forth explosively, "then, sir, by Minerva's pale brow, +and by all the gods at once, I brand you"-- + +"Put the brand on hot, little one! Make it a good strong curse while +you're about it!" + +He choked with rage for a moment; then he controlled himself with +painful effort. + +"My personal grievances must wait," continued Dick, brokenly, "but +speaking for the committee I wish to say that your attentions to the +young lady whom you have dared, sir, to name, are obnoxious to us." + +"Nothing less than that!" added Shallenberger. + +"We will not stand for it," growled Ormsby's heavy bass. + +"Mr. Shallenberger," I replied evenly, "as a member of the great +Hoosier school of novelists I have the most profound respect for your +talents. My office-boy is dead to the world for weeks after the +appearance of a novel from your pen. But your interference in my +private affairs is beyond all reason. And as for you, Mr. Ormsby, I +dare say your knit-goods are worthy of the fame of the pent-up Utica +from which you come. But to you and all of you, I bid defiance. I +return to Hopefield Manor by the four-fourteen express." + +I rose and bowed coldly in dismissal; but the trio stood their ground +stubbornly. + +"I tell you, sir, our organization is complete!" declared Dick. "We +signed a gentleman's agreement only last night, for the express purpose +of excluding you, and you cannot enter as a competitor. You are only +an outsider, and we don't intend to have you interfering with our +affairs." + +"By the pink left ear of Venus!" I blurted, "is it a trust?" + +"You put it coarsely, Mr. Ames, but"-- + +"A suitors' trust? Then if I read the newspapers correctly, your +organization is against public policy and in contravention of the +anti-trust law. But may I inquire why, if you have perfected a +combination of Miss Hollister's suitors, I found Lord Arrowood this +morning sitting on a stone by the roadside, evidently in the greatest +dejection. Can it be possible that an insurgent has crept into your +organization and incurred the displeasure of the regulars?" + +"We ruled him out," Shallenberger burst forth, "because he was a +foreigner and not entitled to a place among free-born Americans! That +is one reason; and for another, the colors of his half-hose were an +offense to me, personally." + +"And for another reason," interposed Ormsby, "he had no money with +which to pay his board at the Prescott Arms. For this just cause the +landlord ejected him shortly after breakfast this morning." + +"Then there is already a rift in the lute!" I returned. "No trust of +suitors is stronger than its weakest link. By the bloody footprints of +our forefathers on the snows of Valley Forge, I stand for the right of +the American girl to choose where she will. You may perch on the hills +about Hopefield Manor, and besiege Cecilia Hollister till the end of +time, but my hand is raised against your unrighteous compact, and I am +in the fight to stay! Go back to the Prescott Arms, gentlemen, and +assure your associates in this hideous compact of my most distinguished +consideration and tell them to go to the devil." + + +I had gone to the St. Parvenu Hotel to call upon a Washington lady who +had been making life a burden to my assistant, and on coming out into +Fifth Avenue shortly after one, bethought me of the Asolando Tea-Room. +My interview with the committee of the suitors had driven from my mind +practically every consideration and every interest not centred in +Hopefield Manor. My thoughts turned gratefully to the Asolando, where +only a few days ago I had been precipitated into the strangest +adventures my eventless life had known. + +A strange face was visible at the cashier's desk as I entered the +tea-room. I passed on, finding the place quite full, but I took it as +a good omen that the seventh table from the right was unoccupied, and I +hastily appropriated it. A waitress appeared promptly, murmuring,-- + + "There are no birds in last year's nest,"-- + +and recommended a Locker-Lampson sandwich, whose contents the girl told +me were secret, but it proved to be wholly palatable. As I drank my +tea and ate the sandwich I surveyed the decorated menu card with +interest, and found pleasurable excitement in discovering an item +directing attention to "Pickles _a la_ Hezekiah, 15 cents." + +The delightful Hezekiah must, then, have impressed herself upon the +_deus ex machina_ of the Asolando on her brief day there, thus to have +won this recognition. And further on I noted, among the desserts, +_Peche Cecilie_, with even greater interest and satisfaction. Miss +Hollister's nieces were among ten thousand young women, and it was +quite believable that their brief tenure of office in the tea-room had +fixed them permanently in the heart of the unknown proprietor. + +The girl at the cash-desk was reading, her head bent as demurely as +Hezekiah's had been on that memorable afternoon; but I did not care for +the stranger's profile. I tried to fancy Cecilia in cap and apron +serving these tables, but my imagination was not equal to the task. + +Cecilia occupied my mind now. The visit of the furious suitors to my +office had stirred in me thoughts and aspirations that had never known +harborage in my breast before. The presumption of those fellows had +exceeded anything I had known in my contact with human kind, and +instead of frightening me away from Hopefield Manor, they had called my +own attention to the strategic importance of my present position as a +guest in Miss Octavia's house. Here was a siege of suitors indeed; but +I was resolved to make the most of my position within the barricade. + +As these thoughts ran through my mind, I was finishing my _Peche +Cecilie_ (I spurn all sweets ordinarily), when I became interested in +the unusual conduct of a young woman who had entered the front door +briskly and walked with a business-like air to the cashier's desk. The +girl within the wicket rose promptly, opened the screen, and without +parley of any sort, emptied the contents of her till into the visitor's +reticule. With a nod and a smile and a moment's careless survey of the +room, the girl departed, swinging the reticule in her hand. A long +roll she carried under her arm confirmed my identification. It was +Miss Octavia Hollister's Swedish maid; and the roll, beyond +peradventure, contained the plans she had obtained at Pepperton's +office. + +The girl was well-featured, neat of figure, and becomingly gowned, and +as I watched her leave the shop the lightness of her step, something +smooth and flowing in her movements, interested me. I did not know +what business she had to be robbing the Asolando money-drawer, but it +was altogether possible that she was the Hopefield ghost! + +On the whole, when I had finally torn myself away from my +assistant,--who made no attempt to conceal his doubts as to my +sanity,--and had settled myself in the four-fourteen express with the +afternoon papers, I was fully satisfied with the day's adventures. + + + + +XII + +THE RIDDLE OF THE SIBYL'S LEAVES + +I had told the coachman in the morning not to trouble to meet me on my +return, and I engaged the village liveryman to drive me to the house +for hire. As we approached Hopefield I saw the Napoleonic figure of +John Stewart Dick in the roadway. He had evidently been waiting for +me. He held up his hand with the superb, impersonal scorn of a Fifth +Avenue policeman, and the driver checked his horse. + +"I gave you warning," he said impressively. "If you return to the +house the consequences will be upon your own head." + +"Thank you," I replied courteously. "You lay yourself open to the +severest penalties of the law in attempting to intimidate me. I have +enlisted for the whole campaign. Sick chimneys require my immediate +professional attention. If my bark sink, 't is to another sea. Be +good, dear child, let those who will be clever; and kindly omit +flowers." + +As the driver slapped his reins, Dick sprang out of the way, muttering +words that proved the shallowness of his philosophic temper. The +liveryman expressed his disapproval of the pragmatist in profane terms +as we entered the grounds. + +"There's a heap o' talk in the village," he observed. "They do say the +old lady 's cracked, if I may so speak of her; and that there's ghosts +in the house. And the conduct of the gentlemen at the Prescott is most +remarkable. The word 's passed that they're all dippy about the young +Miss Hollister that lives with her aunt. I reckon all rich people are +a bit cracked. It appears to go with the money. Mr. Bassford +Hollister,--he's the old lady's brother,--he's just as bad as any of +'em. I've drove in these parts fifteen year, and I 've worked a heap +for the rich, but I never seen nothin' like the Hollisters. They say +Mr. Bassford is about broke now. Had his share of the baby-wagon money +and blew it in, and now the old lady's marryin' off the girls and he +gets no money out of her if he takes a hand in that game. She's doin' +it to suit herself. That Bassford is always up to somethin' queer. +Yesterday he sat in the village street countin' the number of people he +saw chewin' gum. Hung around the school-house watchin' the children to +see how many had their jaws goin'. Takin' notes just like the census +man and tax assessor. Told our doctor in the village he was figurin' +the amount of horse-power the American people put into gum-chewing +every year, and expects to find some way of usin' it to run machinery. +It's harmless, Doc says. He calls it just the Hollister idiosyncrasy, +if that's the word. But I reckon it's idiotsyncrasy all right. I wish +you good luck of your place, sir." + +He evidently believed me to be some sort of upper servant, and this +added to my joy of the day. With my good humor augmented by the +interview, I entered the house. A strange footman admitted me, and I +went to my room at once without meeting any one else. + +The man followed me with a penciled note, signed with Cecilia's +initials, requesting my presence below as soon as possible, as she +wished to see me before dinner. The thought that she wished to see me +at any time filled me with elation; and her few lines scratched on a +correspondence card were a pleasing addendum to our conversation of the +morning. I only wondered whether I should find her the sober, reserved +young woman of our earlier acquaintance, or whether she would choose to +renew the good comradeship of our talk on the train. The finding of my +assistant's telegraphed resignation on my dressing-table, to take +effect in January, had not the slightest effect upon the lofty minarets +in which my fancy now found lodgment. It pleased me to believe that +fighting blood still pulsed in the last of the house of Ames, and that +I had hurled defiance at the organized band of suitors that guarded the +Hopefield gates and picketed the surrounding hills. + +My question as to which Cecilia I should find in the library was +quickly answered. Her frank smile, the candor of her eyes, confessed a +new tie between us; we were becoming conspirators within the main +conspiracy, whatever its character might be. + +"As to Providence and the cook--what luck?" I asked. + +"Oh, I managed that very easily. I ran into some friends who were +going abroad for the winter. They have a staff of unusual servants, +and were anxious to keep them together until their return. I promptly +engaged them all, and they are even now installed. I came up on the +train with them, and as they are unusually intelligent and biddable, +they agreed to stray in in a casual and desultory way through the +afternoon. Aunt Octavia really believed, or pretended she did, which +is just as good, that Providence had sent them, and was delighted. The +laundress--the last to appear--has just arrived, and Aunt Octavia is in +fine humor. She did n't even ask me how I came off in my encounter at +the dentist's. She had filled the pie-pantry and had a good time while +I was gone." + +"Well, I have had an adventure of my own," I remarked, after expressing +my relief that she had solved the servant difficulty with so much ease. +"A committee of gentlemen waited on me in my office on a matter of +grave importance." + +She lifted her brows, and folded her hands upon her knees--it was a +pretty way she had. + +"Was it the freedom of the city, or some high recognition of your +professional ability, Mr. Ames?" + +"Oh, far more exciting! Three gentlemen, representing the suitors' +trust now maintaining headquarters at the Prescott Arms, warned me +solemnly to keep off the grass. In other words, I am not to interfere +with their designs upon the heart of Miss Cecilia Hollister." + +She flung open a fan, held it at arm's length, and scrutinized the +daffodils that were traced upon it. + +"So they dared you?" + +"So they dared me. And I took the dare." + +"Why?" + +Her eyes met mine gravely, but behind her pretty _moue_ a smile lurked +delightfully. + +[Illustration: Her eyes met mine gravely.] + +"If I should tell you now it would be flirting, which is a sin." + +"I had imagined, Mr. Ames, that that sort of thing came easy to you. +But if it's sinful, of course"-- + +"But you do not rule me out! You will give me a chance"-- + +My earnestness caused her manner to change suddenly. Her beautiful +gravity came like a swift falling of starlit twilight. I had never +been so happy as at this moment. Preposterous as were the +circumstances of my presence in the house, the juxtaposition of Cecilia +Hollister gave me unalloyed delight. The animosity of the gentlemen at +the Prescott Arms--an animosity which the interview in my office had +doubtless intensified--quickened my satisfaction in thus being within +the walls that guarded the lady of their adoration. She had not +answered me, and I felt my heart pounding in the silence. + +"I want to serve you, now, hereafter, and always," I added. "These men +can have no claim upon you greater than that of any other man who +dares!" + +"No, none whatever," she replied firmly. + +"And the mystery, the whole story, is in the little silver book!" + +She started, flushed, and then laughter visited her lips and eyes. The +book was not in her hands nor in sight anywhere, but I felt that I was +on the right track, and that the little trinket had to do with her +plight and her compact with her aunt. Best of all, the fact that I had +chanced upon this clue gave her happiness. There was no debating that. + +"You had best have a care, Mr. Ames. You have spoken words that would +be treasonable if they came from me, and I must not countenance them." + +"But you will tolerate from me words that you would not permit another +to speak? Do I go too far?" + +She bent her head to one side,--with the slightest inclination, as of a +rose touched by a vagrant wind. + +"If I could only half believe in you," she said, "you might really +serve me. So those gentlemen warned you away! Their presumption is +certainly astounding." + +"They know nothing of the silver book!" + +"They know less than you do,--and you have a good deal to learn, you +know." + +"I am dull enough, but I have no ambition but to read the riddle of the +sibyl's leaves. That and the laying of the ghost are my immediate +business. As for the gentlemen at the Prescott, including my old +friend Hartley Wiggins, I am not in the least afraid of them. My hand +is raised against them. If it's a case of the test of Ulysses over +again, I 'm as likely as any of them to bend the bow." + +I thought this well spoken, but she seemed amused, though without +unkindness, by the earnestness of my speech. + +"If your wit is equal to your valor, you may go far. But"--and she +turned her eyes full upon me--"we must play the game according to the +rules." + +"And as for Hartley Wiggins"-- + +She sat up very straight, and the sudden disdain in her face startled +me. I had forgotten my eavesdropping in the clump of raspberries on +the day of my arrival. Certainly Wiggins had been decidedly in the +race then, and my heart thumped in resentment as I recalled her own +message, all compact of encouragement, which I had borne to Wiggins at +the Prescott Arms. + +"I will tell you something, Mr. Ames. This afternoon, as I drove from +the station, I came round by the lake, merely to cool my eyes on the +water, and I saw Mr. Wiggins and my sister seated on a wall in an old +orchard. They were so busily engaged that they did not see me. At +least he did not; but I think Hezekiah did." + +"Hezekiah," I answered, relieved by the nature of her disclosure, which +could not but prejudice Wiggins' case, "Hezekiah is fond of orchards. +I dare say this was the same one in which I had a charming talk with +her myself. Doubtless she was amusing herself with Wiggins just as she +did with me. She finds the genus homo entertaining." + +"She is the dearest girl in the world,--the sweetest, the loveliest, +the brightest. Mr. Wiggins has treated her outrageously. He has taken +advantage of her youth and susceptible nature." + +"His punishment is sure," I answered complacently. "Hezekiah laughed +when I mentioned his name. And you frown to-day at the thought of him." + +"Aunt Octavia is coming," she remarked, feigning at once a careless +air; but I was content that she let my remark pass unchallenged. + +Miss Octavia's entrances were always effective. She appeared to-night +charmingly gowned, but the bright twinkle in her eyes made it clear +that no matter of dress could affect her humor or spirit. She greeted +me, as she always did, as though our acquaintance were a matter of +years rather than of days. I even imagined that she seemed pleased to +find me back again. She asked no questions as to my day's occupations, +but as we went in to dinner sallied forth cheerfully upon a description +of her own activities. + +"After I had baked my required quota of pies this morning, I sought +recreation at the traps. The stable-boy who has been pulling the +string for me having struck-work, it most providentially happened that +I espied Lord Arrowood hanging on the edge of the maple tangle beyond +the barn. I summoned him at once and put him to work managing the +traps for me, finding him most efficient. He seemed extremely +despondent, and after I had satisfied myself that two out of three was +not an impossible record for one of my years, I brought him to the +house and made tea for him. I left the room for a moment--I had taken +him into the kitchen where, during the incumbency of the regular cook I +hardly dare venture myself, and he made himself comfortable quite near +the range. The pies on which I had been engaged all morning lay +cooling near him. I had composed twenty-nine pies,--I am an excellent +mathematician, and I could not have been mistaken in the count. What +was my amazement to find, after his lordship's departure, that one pie +was missing! The pan in which it was baked I discerned later, jammed +into a barrel of excellent Minnesota flour. My absence from the room +was the briefest; his lordship must indeed be a prestidigitateur to +have made way with the pie so expeditiously." + +"His lordship was doubtless hungry," I suggested. "Even nobility must +eat. I passed Lord Arrowood in the highway early this morning, sitting +upon a stone, with sundry items of hand-baggage reposing beside him. I +have rarely seen any one so depressed." + +"He belongs to an ancient house," remarked Miss Octavia. "He is +descended from either Hengist or Horsa,--I forget which, but it does +not greatly matter. The missing pie, I may add, was an effect in +Westchester pippin; and as our American experiment in self-government +bores him, I take it as significant that he chanced upon food that is +the veritable sacrament of democracy." + +"Now that the little matter of the servants has been adjusted, we must +have a care lest the newly-arrived phalanx, which Providence so kindly +sent to you to-day, is not stampeded by any further manifestations of +the troubled spirit of the unfortunate Briton who was hanged on the +site of this house." + +"Mr. Ames," replied Miss Octavia impressively, "that matter is entirely +in your hands." + +"But if I could see the plans of this house, I should be better able to +grapple with his ghostship." + +I had thrown this out in the hope of eliciting some remark from her +touching the Swedish maid's visit to Pepperton's office; but Miss +Octavia met my gaze unflinchingly. + +"You are a clever man, Mr. Ames, and I have every confidence that you +will not only solve the mystery of the library chimney but find the +ghost that switched off the lights on the stair last night. I prefer +that you should accomplish these feats without any help from the plans. +I myself have no suggestions. I am gratified that you are meeting the +emergencies that have risen here with so much determination, but it is +what I should expect of the son of Arnold Ames of Hartford. +Opportunity is all that any of us need to find ourselves truly great, +and if, in the ordinary course of our lives, the gate does not open +freely, we are justified in picking the lock. When I determined to +seek adventures in my old age, I resolved that I should miss no chance, +and that I should be prepared for any beckoning of the hand of fate. +An odd fancy struck me at the beginning of my new life that Boston +would some day be the starting-point of some interesting experience. +This has not yet developed, but in order that I may be prepared for +anything that may occur I keep a blue-silk umbrella constantly checked +at the Parker House. The presence of the little brass check in my +purse is a constant reminder that Boston may one day call me." + +A discussion of the Parker House umbrella followed, Cecilia and I +joining, and it proved so fruitful a topic that it carried us to our +coffee. + +Coffee-making, in a machine she had herself contrived, was always +attended with rites that required deliberation, and while she performed +them Miss Hollister continued to amuse us. + +"You may not know," she remarked, in one of her charming irrelevant +outbursts, "that the most important furniture transactions effected in +this country are those negotiated daily by the head-waiters of the +Fifth Avenue restaurants. Such is, I assure you, the fact. These +gentlemen, who have attained front rank among our predatory rich, allow +no one to dine at the inns they dominate who does not first purchase a +table and chairs at a profit of at least two hundred per cent over the +original Grand Rapids cost, the furniture thus purchased reverting in +every case to the party of the first part after the purchasers have +eaten to their satisfaction. The Fifth Avenue head-waiters are not +only the most absolute autocrats of our time, but the most acute +students of human nature among us. The sale of the tables by the lords +of the dining-rooms is alone worth a fortune every season at our +fashionable victualing houses and, in addition, the humbler members of +the minor orders of waiters, who merely fetch and carry, are obliged to +share their gratuities with their august chiefs." + +"The system is iniquitous," I declared. "It's enough to pay two prices +for the food without buying the hotel furniture." + +"The system, Mr. Ames, is wholly admirable, if you will pardon me for +expressing a difference of opinion. We cannot do less than admire the +austere genius before which mere plutocrats and men of affairs meekly +bow. In making my own investments I would rather have the advice of +Alphonse at the Hotel Pallida than that of the president of the +strongest trust company on Manhattan Island. The varying size of the +sums he receives for the dining-room furniture is the best possible +indication of the condition of the market. When a citizen of Pittsburg +will pay no more than one hundred dollars for the use of a table to eat +from at the Pallida you may be sure that a panic impends. By the way, +I proposed to Alphonse last winter the organization of a limited +company of leading head-waiters to control the waiting industry of +Fifth Avenue. It was my idea that some special forms of torture might +be devised for calculating persons--usually readers of New York letters +in provincial newspapers--who think a waiter entitled to only ten per +cent of the bill, and this could best be managed by an arrangement +between the five or six magnates who control the more gilded and +imposing refectories. I suggested the placing of a special mark in the +hats of the ten-per-cent fiends, so that wherever they dine the symbol +of their indiscreet frugalities would be apparent to the initiated eye. +It is another of my notions that the head-waiter and his humble slave +should present a formal bill for their services, while the hotel or +restaurant should merely be tipped. In this way the more important +service would receive its due consideration. The sole office of the +proprietor is to provide the head-waiter a place in which to follow his +profession. Alphonse is impressed with my ideas, and has even offered +to make me a director of the company." + +"I suppose that you won the regard of Alphonse, the magnificent, only +by the most princely tips through many years of acquaintance, Miss +Hollister." + +"On the other hand, Mr. Ames, I never gave him a cent in my life; but +last Christmas, in recognition of his friendliness in warning me +against an alligator-pear salad, at a moment when that vegetable was at +the turn of the season, I knit him a pair of blue worsted bed-room +slippers, which he received with the liveliest expressions of delight." + +Three suitors were announced at this moment, and I slipped away without +excuses, while Miss Octavia and Cecilia adjourned to the library. + +The ghost, I had sworn, should not baffle me another night. + + + + +XIII + +I DISCOVER TWO GHOSTS + +As I crossed the second-floor hall, I passed the Swedish maid, walking +toward Miss Octavia's room. I was somewhat annoyed to find, on looking +over my shoulder to make sure of her destination, that she, too, had +paused, her hand on Miss Octavia's door, and was watching me with +interest. She vanished immediately; but to throw her off the track I +went to my own room, closed the door noisily, and then came out quickly +and ran up to the third floor. + +Bassford Hollister's mysterious exit had lingered in my mind as the +most curious incident of the eventful Friday night. Having been +baffled in my effort to get hold of the architect's plans, my thought +now was to await in the upper part of the house a repetition of the +various phenomena that had so puzzled me. By the process of exclusion +I had eliminated nearly every plausible theory, but if the ghost +manifested himself with any sort of periodicity (and the hour of the +chimney's queer behavior had been nine) I was now prepared to meet him +in the regions he had chosen for his exploits. When it is remembered +that I had always been most timorous, not at all anxious to shine in +any heroic performances, it will be understood that the atmosphere of +Hopefield Manor was exerting a stimulating effect upon my courage. Or, +more likely, my inherent cowardice had been brought into subjection by +my curiosity. + +I had a pretty accurate knowledge by this time of the position and +function of all the electric switches between the lower hall and the +fourth floor, but I tested them as I ascended, glancing down now and +then to make sure I was not observed. From the sound of voices in the +library I judged that most of Cecilia's suitors must now have arrived, +and so much the better, I argued; for with Miss Octavia and her niece +fully occupied, I could the better carry on my ghost-hunt above stairs. + +At a quarter before nine I switched off the lights on the third and +fourth floors, and established myself at the head of the stairway, and +quite near the trunk-room door. This door I had opened, as I fancied +that if Bassford Hollister were at the bottom of the business, he would +probably wish to find his way to the roof again. So far as I was able +to manage it, the stage was in readiness for the entrance of the +goblin. And I may record my impression, that as we wait for a +visitation of this sort, it is with a degree of credence in things +supernatural, to which we would not ordinarily confess. In spite of +ourselves we expect something to appear, something unearthly, +impalpable, and unresponsive to those tests we apply to the known and +understood. + +The clock below struck nine upon these meditations, and almost upon the +last stroke I heard a sound that set my nerves tingling. I crouched in +the dark waiting. Some one was coming toward me, but from where? The +bottom of a well at midnight was not blacker than the fourth floor, but +the switch lay ready to my hand, and my pockets were stuffed with +matches of the sort that light anywhere. The stairways were all +carpeted, as I have said, and yet some one was ascending bare treads, +lightly, and with delays that suggested a furtive purpose. Meanwhile, +as a background for this unreality, murmurs of talk and occasional +laughter rose from the library. + +This concealed stairway, wherever it was, could not be of interminable +length, and I had counted, I think, fifteen steps of that strange +ascent when it ceased. I heard a fumbling as of some one seeking a +latch, and suddenly a light current of air swept by me, but its clean +fresh quality was not in itself disturbing. I stooped and struck a +match smartly on the carpet and at the same time clicked the switch. I +should say that not more than ten seconds passed from the moment the +soft rush of air had first advertised the opening of a passage near me +until the hall was flooded with the glow of the electric lamps +overhead. My match had also performed its office, but finding the +electric current behaving itself normally, I blew it out. What I saw +now interested me immensely. + +In the solid wall, near the stair, and almost directly opposite the +trunk-room, a narrow door had swung outward,--a neat contrivance, so +light in its construction that it still swayed on its concealed hinges +from the touch of the hand that had released it. How it had opened or +what had become of the prowler who had unlatched it remained to be +discovered. It seemed impossible that whoever or whatever had climbed +the hidden stairway had descended, nor had I been conscious of a +ghostly passing as on the previous night. I had only my senses to +apply to this problem, and their efficiency was minimized for a moment +by fear. + +The opening in the wall engaged my attention at once, and I was +steadied by the thought that here was a practical matter susceptible of +investigation. I stepped within the door and lighted a candle; and +just as the wick caught fire, click went a switch somewhere, and out +went the hall lamps. But having, so to speak, put my foot to the +mysterious stair I would not turn back, and I continued on down the +steps. + +Great was my astonishment to find that I had apparently stepped from a +new into an old house. The stair treads were worn by long use, the +plaster walls that inclosed them were battered and cracked, and I +seemed to have plunged from the glory of Hopefield into some dim lost +passage of a domicile of another era, that lay within or beneath the +walls of the Manor. As I slowly descended, holding high my candle, I +recalled, not without a qualm, the story of the British soldier whom +tradition or superstition linked to the site of Miss Hollister's +property. This stairway might certainly have been built in the early +days of the republic, and it refuted my disdain of the ghost-myth on +the theory that new houses are inhospitable to spirits. + +At the foot of the stair I found two rooms, one on either side of a +small hall, and these, also, were clearly part of an old house that +seemed to be somehow merged into the Hollister mansion. I remembered +now that the mansion stood wedged against a rough spur of rock, and +that the front and rear entrances were upon different levels, and it +was conceivable that the back part of the mansion might inclose these +rooms of an earlier house that had occupied the same site; why they +should have been retained was beyond me. + +Through the carefully-preserved windows, many-paned and quaint, of +these hidden rooms, the infolding walls of the new house were blank and +black. An odd thing indeed, that Pepperton should have lent himself to +the preservation of a commonplace and thoroughly uninteresting relic, +for beyond doubt he must have countenanced it; and Miss Hollister's +prompt removal of the plans from the architect's office became more +enigmatical than ever. + +One door only remained in this shell of the old house, and I hastened +to fling it open, still lighting my way with a candle. Before me lay +the coal cellar, at which I had merely glanced on the morning after my +installation at Hopefield. I now began to get my bearings. I +remembered two iron lids in the cemented surface of an area on the east +side of the house where fuel was deposited, and mounting a few steps +that were of recent construction, and had evidently been built to +afford communication between the remnant of the old house and the +subterranean portion of the new, I found to my relief and satisfaction +beneath one of these openings a short ladder, through which the court +might be reached. Here, then, the manner of ghostly ingress was +illustrated by perfectly plausible means. The lid of the coal-hole was +entirely withdrawn, and a bar of moonlight lay brightening upon a pile +of anthracite at the foot of the ladder. + +The ghost I believed to be still in the upper halls of the house, and +now that I was in a position to watch the ladder by which he had +entered I felt confident that I had cut off his retreat. I was +surveying the cellar, when I heard faint sounds in a new direction. +Far away under the house, and remote from the secret steps, some one +was moving toward me, and rapidly, too! The ghost that I believed to +have disappeared into the fourth-floor hall must then have changed the +line of his retreat and descended by one of the regular stairways. + +I blew out my candle and stood with my back to the wall of the long +corridor on which opened the various store-rooms, the heating plant, +laundry and other accessories of the modern house. My ghost was coming +in haste,--a haste that did not harmonize with the stately tread of the +spooks of popular superstition. A slower pace and I should doubtless +have fled before him; but quick light steps echoed in the dark +corridor, and I gathered courage from the thought that ghosts create +echoes no more than they cast shadows. + +As the steps drew nearer I prepared myself to spring upon him. I must +unconsciously have taken a step, for he paused suddenly, stood still +for a moment, then turned and scampered back the way he had come. +After him I went as fast as I could run. The cement-paved corridor was +four or five feet wide, and I plunged through the dark at my best +speed. At the end of the corridor I was pretty certain of my quarry, +and I made ready to grapple with him. Then as I plunged into the wall +my hands touched a man's face and for a moment clutched the collar of +his coat. He had been waiting for me to strike the wall, and as he +slipped out of my grasp he ran back toward the coal cellar. I had +struck the wall with a force that knocked the wind out of me, but I got +myself together with the loss of only an instant and renewed pursuit. +I had no fear but that, if he attempted to reach the open by means of +the coal-hole, I should catch him on the ladder, and I sprinted for all +I was worth to make sure of him. + +My fleeting grasp of the man's collar and the agility with which he had +slipped from my clasp had settled the ghost question, and I had now +resolved the intruder into a common thief. As we neared the coal +cellar I increased my pace, and felt myself gaining on him; though in +the dark I saw nothing until I glimpsed the faint light from the +coal-hole. + +It had evidently occurred to him by this time that if he tried to climb +the ladder I could easily pull him down by the legs; and when he +reached the cross hall, he turned quickly and dived through the opening +into the hidden chambers. I lost no time in following, but the fellow +put up a good race, and as I reached the old stairway he was mounting +it two steps at a time, as I judged from the sound. I had hoped to +catch and dispose of him without alarming the house, but it seemed +inevitable now that the chase would end in such fashion as to arouse +the company assembled in the library. + +I heard him stumble and fall headlong at the door above; then he shot +off into the still darkened hall, and when I had gained the top I lost +track of him for a moment. I paused and was about to strike a match, +when he resumed his flight, and I was forced to grapple with the fact +that some one else was pursuing him. I held my match unstruck upon +this new disclosure, and stepped back within the concealed door and +waited. Up and down the hall, two persons were running, and when they +reached the ends of the corridor I heard hands touch the wall and the +sound of dodging, and then almost instantly the two runners flashed by +me again. The hall was so dark that I saw nothing, but as the runners +passed the door I felt the rush of air caused by their flight. + +Three or four times this had happened, and then, still without having +made a light, I thrust out my foot at the next return of the unseen +runners. Some one tripped and fell headlong, and I promptly flung +myself upon him. + +My prisoner's resistance engaged my best attention a moment, but when I +had sat upon his legs and got hold of his struggling hands, some one +stole softly by me. My prisoner, too, heard and was attentive. Not +only did I experience the same sensation as on the previous night, of a +passing near by, but I was conscious of the same faint perfume, as of a +flower-scent half-caught in a garden at night, that had added to my +mystification before. Then without the slightest warning the lights +flashed on, and a door closed somewhere, but it was not the hidden one +leading down into the remnant of the old house, for my prisoner's head +and shoulders lay across its threshold. He sighed deeply, bringing my +dazed wits back to him, and I found myself gazing into the blinking +eyes of Lord Arrowood. + +"Bounders, I say, bounders!" he gasped. + +"In the circumstances, Lord Arrowood, I should not call names. Will +you tell me what you mean by running through this house in this +fashion? Stand up and give an account of yourself." + +I helped him to his feet and bent over the stair-rail leading down to +the third floor. Evidently our strange transactions beneath and above +had not disturbed the assembled suitors and their hostesses; but in +common decency Lord Arrowood must be disposed of promptly; there was no +doubt about that. + +"I was an ass to try it," muttered his lordship, pulling his tie into +shape. "And now I want to get out. I want to go away from here." + +He was tugging at the belt of his Norfolk coat, and something between +it and his waistcoat evidently gave him concern. It did not seem +possible that he was really a thief, with chattels concealed on his +person, but he continued to smooth his jacket anxiously, meanwhile +eyeing me apprehensively. He puffed hard from his recent game of +hide-and-seek, and his face was wet with perspiration. Our +conversation was carried on in half-whispers. He was so crestfallen +that if it had n't been for the necessity of maintaining silence I +should have laughed outright. + +"Out with it, my lord. What have you stuck in your coat?" + +"They're bounders, all the rest of 'em," he asserted doggedly, "but I +believe you to be a gentleman." + +"I thank you, Lord Arrowood, for this mark of confidence; but you have +led me a hot chase through this house, and it is clear that you have +something tucked under your coat that you have seized feloniously. +We're standing here in the light, and our voices may at any moment +attract Miss Hollister and the others in the library. Open your coat! +I declare that even if you have lifted a bit of the Hollister plate I +will let you go. My lord, if you please, stand and unfold yourself!" + +Reluctantly, shamefacedly, and still breathing hard from his late +exertions, Lord Arrowood of Arrowood, Hants, England, obeyed me. There +were five buttons to the close-fitting jacket, and the loosening of +every succeeding one seemed to give him pain. Then with his head +slightly lifted as though in disdain of me, he held out for my +observation a pie, in the pan in which it had been baked! The top +crust was browned to a nicety; its edges were crimped neatly; and in +spite of the fact that I had so lately dined sumptuously at Miss +Hollister's hospitable board, at sight of this alluring pastry I +experienced the sharp twinges of aroused appetite. + +[Illustration: He held out for my observation a pie.] + +"Now you have it, and I hope you are satisfied," said Lord Arrowood. +"Kindly allow me to retire by the way I came." + +"First," I replied, sobered by the gravity of his manner, "it would +interest me as a student of character to know just what species of pie +lured you to this burglarious deed." + +"I have reason to think," he answered, with tears in his eyes, "that it +is a gooseberry. I was damned hungry, if you must know the truth, and +having sampled the old lady's pies this morning, and had nothing to eat +since, I saw the coal-hole open and ladder beneath, and the rest of it +was easy. If you and the other chap had n't chased me all over the +estate, I 'd have been off with my pie and no harm done. The old lady +'s insane, you know, and has no manner of use for pies. The house is +haunted in the bargain. When you had about winded me down in the +cellar and cut me off from the ladder and chased me up here, the ghost +took a hand, and if you had n't tripped me and sat on me the spirits +would certainly have nailed me. O Lord, what a night!" + +"It's your impression then that when you got up here somebody else +broke into the game." + +"Quite that, only I should say some_thing_, not some_body_. It was a +lighter step than yours. It had its hand on me once; but I could n't +touch it. Damn me," he concluded hoarsely, "it was n't there to touch!" + +"You are sure you speak the truth when you say that the coal-hole was +open and that you found the ladder there when you came?" + +"No manner of doubt of it. As I have already said, I believe you to be +a gentleman, and between gentlemen certain confidences may pass that +would n't be possible between a gentleman and those _canaille_ down +there." + +He jerked his head scornfully to indicate the suitors below. + +I bowed with such dignity as is possible in addressing a nobleman whom +you have just caught in the act of lifting a gooseberry-pie from a +lady's pantry,--a pie which you hold perforce in your hands. + +"The fact is that I was without the price of food; and to repeat, I was +beastly hungry." + +"Poverty and hunger, my lord, are pardonable sins. And I dare say that +Miss Hollister would be highly pleased to know that a gentleman of your +high position--she told me herself that you were descended from the +Jutish chiefs--had paid so high a compliment to the excellence of her +pastry. Your only error, as I view the matter, lies in the fact that +you have laid felonious hands upon a gooseberry-pie. All gooseberry +pastries are sacred to Hezekiah. My impressions of Hezekiah are the +pleasantest, and I cannot allow you to intervene between her and the +pie I hold in my hands. If you will accompany me below, I will +undertake to gain access to the pie vault, return this pie to its +proper place, and hand you, at the foot of the ladder, an apple-pie in +place of it. I dare say it never will be missed; but from what I know +of Hezekiah, any trifling with her appetite would be a crime indictable +at common law." + +His lordship seemed reassured, and we were about to descend by the +concealed stair when he arrested me. + +"Mr. Ames, you are a gentleman, and possess a generous heart. We +understand each other perfectly. And as I have every reason to believe +that my suit is hopeless, I ask the loan of five dollars until I can +confer with my friend the British consul at New York. I shall sail at +once for England." + +I was moved to pity by his humility. A man who, finding himself +reduced to larceny by hunger, and being unable to win the woman of his +choice, meekly yields to the inevitable, is not a fair mark for +contumely. He stepped down before me into the dark stairway, and I +closed the door after me and followed him. + +I found my way to the pie pantry without difficulty, returned the +gooseberry-pie to its proper shelf, chose an apple-pie and gave it, +with a five-dollar note, to Lord Arrowood. + +At the bottom of the ladder he pressed my hand feelingly, and expressed +his gratitude in terms that would have touched a harder heart than mine. + +Then having closed the coal-hole and hidden the ladder under a pile of +wood, I resumed my pursuit of the ghost. + + + + +XIV + +LADY'S SLIPPER + +I lighted my way with a candle through the lost chambers of the old +house, up the hidden stairway, and out into the fourth-floor hall +again. The old stair, I found on closer observation, reached only from +the second to the fourth floor, and below this had been pieced with +lumber carefully preserved from the earlier house. There was nothing +so strange after all about the hidden stairway, though I was convinced +that this had been no idea of Pepperton's, but that he had merely +obeyed the orders of his eccentric client, the umbrella and +dyspepsia-cure millionaire. + +I had no sooner let myself through the secret door into the upper hall +than I was aware of a disturbance in the library below. I heard +exclamations from the men, and as I ran down toward the third floor +Miss Octavia's voice rose above the tumult. + +"We must have patience, gentlemen. Chimneys are subject to moods just +like human beings; and we are fortunate in having in the house a +gentleman who is an expert in such matters. I do not doubt that Mr. +Ames even now has his hand upon the chimney's pulse, and that he will +soon solve this perplexing problem." + +"If you wait for that man to mend your chimney you will wait until +doomsday." + +So spake John Stewart Dick, taking his vengeance of me with my client +and hostess. I might have forgiven him; but I could not forgive +Hartley Wiggins. + +"He does n't know any more about chimneys than the man in the moon," my +old friend was saying, between coughs. + +And then quite unmistakably I smelt smoke, and bending further over the +rail and peering down the stair-well I saw smoke pouring from the +library into the hall. It seemed to be in greater volume to-night than +at previous manifestations. A gray-blue cloud was filling the lower +hall and rising toward me. I ran quickly to the third floor, to the +chamber whose fireplace was served by the library chimney. The lights +in the third-floor hall winked out as I opened the door,--I heard a +step behind me somewhere; but I did not trouble about this. The switch +inside the unused guest-chamber responded readily to my touch, and on +kneeling by the hearth I found it cold, as I had expected. There was +absolutely no way of choking the library flue at this point, for, as I +had established earlier, all the fireplaces in this chimney had their +independent flues. Pepperton would never have built them otherwise, +and no one but a skilled mason could have tapped the library flue here +or higher up, and the work could not have been done without much noise +and labor. + +The hall outside was still dark, and I did not try the switch. The +pursuit was better carried on in darkness, and I had by this time +become accustomed to rapid locomotion through unlighted passages. I +leaned over the stair-well and heard exclamations of surprise at the +sudden cessation of the smoke, which had evidently abated as abruptly +as it had begun. The windows and doors had been opened, and the +company had returned to the library. + +"Quite extraordinary. Really quite remarkable!" they were saying +below. I heard Cecilia's light laughter as the odd ways of the chimney +were discussed. And as I stood thus peering down and listening, the +Swedish maid's blonde head appeared below me, bending over the +well-rail on the second floor. She too was taking note of affairs in +the library, and as I watched her she lifted her head and her eyes met +mine. Then, while we still stared at each other, the second-floor +lights went out with familiar abruptness, and as I craned my neck to +peer into the blackness above me I experienced once more that ghostly +passing as of some light, unearthly thing across my face. I reached +for it wildly with my hands, but it seemed to be caught away from me; +and then as I fought the air madly, it brushed my cheek again. I have +no words to describe the strange effect of that touch. I felt my scalp +creep and cold chills ran down my spine. It seemingly came from above, +and it was not like a hand, unless a hand of wonderful lightness! +Certainly no human arm could reach down the stair-well to where I +stood. And in that touch to-night there was something akin to a +gentle, lingering caress as it swept slowly across my face and eyes. + +I waited for its recurrence a moment, but it came no more. Then on a +sudden prompting I stole swiftly to the fourth floor, lighted my +candle, and gazed about. I thought it well to let the electric light +alone, for my ghost had once too often plunged me into darkness at +critical moments, and a candle in my hands was not subject to his +trickery. + +The hall was perfectly quiet. The door leading down the hidden stair +was invisible, and I had not yet learned how it might be opened from +the hall, though Mr. Bassford Hollister had undoubtedly left the house +by this means after my interview with him on the roof. And reminded of +the roof, I opened the trunk-room door and peered in. The candle-light +slowly crept into its dark corners, and looking up I marked the +presence of the trap-door secure in the opening. As I stood on the +threshold of the trunk-piled room, my hand on the knob and the candle +thrust well before me, I heard a slight furtive movement to my left and +behind the door. I was quite satisfied now that I was about to solve +some of the mysteries of the night, and to make sure I was +unobserved--for having gone so far alone I wanted no partners in my +investigations--I listened to the murmur of talk below for a moment, +then cautiously advanced my candle further into the room. I was not +yet so valiant, even after all my night-prowlings and explorations of +hidden chambers, but that I thrust the light in well ahead of me and +bent my wrist so that the candle's rays might dispel the last shadow +that lurked behind the door before I suffered my eyes to look upon the +goblin. I took one step and then cautiously another, until the whole +of the trunk-room was well within range of my vision. + +And there, seated on a prodigious trunk frescoed with labels of a dozen +foreign inns, I beheld Hezekiah! + +[Illustration: Seated on a prodigious trunk frescoed with labels of a +dozen foreign inns, I beheld Hezekiah!] + +As I recall it she was very much at her ease. She sat on one foot and +the other beat the trunk lightly. She was bareheaded, and the +candle-light was making acquaintance with the gold in her hair. She +wore her white sweater, as on that day in the orchard; and with much +gravity, as our eyes met, she thrust a hand into its pocket and drew +out a cracker. I was not half so surprised at finding her there as I +was at her manner now that she was caught. She seemed neither +distressed, astonished nor afraid. + +"Well, Miss Hezekiah," I said, "I half suspected you all along." + +"Wise Chimney-Man! You were a little slow about it though." + +"I was indeed. You gave me a run for my money." + +She finished her cracker at the third bite, slapped her hands together +to free them of possible crumbs, and was about to speak, when she +jumped lightly from the trunk, bent her head toward the door, and then +stepped back again and faced me imperturbably. + +"And now that you've found me, Mr. Chimney-Man, the joke's on you after +all." + +She laid her hand on the door and swung it nearly shut. I had heard +what she had heard: Miss Octavia was coming upstairs! She had +exchanged a few words with the Swedish maid on the second-floor +landing, and Hezekiah's quick ear had heard her. But Hezekiah's +equanimity was disconcerting: even with her aunt close at hand she +showed not the slightest alarm. She resumed her seat on the trunk, and +her heel thumped it tranquilly. + +"The joke's on you, Mr. Chimney-Man, because now that you 've caught me +playing tricks you've got to get me out of trouble." + +"What if I don't?" + +"Oh, nothing," she answered indifferently, looking me squarely in the +eye. + +"But your aunt would make no end of a row; and you would cause your +sister to lose out with Miss Octavia. As I understand it, you 're +pledged to keep off the reservation. It was part of the family +agreement." + +"But I'm here, Chimney-pot, so what are you going to do about it?" + +"Mr. Ames! If you are ghost-hunting in this part of the house"-- + +It was Miss Octavia's voice. She was seeking me, and would no doubt +find me. The sequestration of Hezekiah became now an urgent and +delicate matter. + +"You caught me," said Hezekiah, calmly, "and now you've got to get me +out; and I wish you good luck! And besides, I lost one of my shoes +somewhere, and you've got to find that." + +In proof of her statement she submitted a shoeless, brown-stockinged +foot for my observation. + +"The one I lost was like this," and Hezekiah thrust forth a neat tan +pump, rather the worse for wear. "I was on the second floor a bit +ago," she began, "and lost my slipper." + +"In what mischief, pray?" + +"Mr. Ames," called Miss Octavia, her voice close at hand. + +"I wanted to see something in Cecilia's room; so I opened her door and +walked in, that's all," Hezekiah replied. + +"Wicked Hezekiah! Coming into the house is bad enough in all the +circumstances. Entering your sister's room is a grievous sin." + +"If, Mr. Ames, you are still seeking an explanation of that chimney's +behavior"-- + +It was Miss Octavia, now just outside the door. + +"Don't leave that trunk, Hezekiah," I whispered. "I'll do the best I +can." + +Miss Octavia met me smilingly as I faced her in the hall. She had +switched on the lights, and my candle burned yellowly in the white +electric glow. + +Miss Octavia held something in her hand. It required no second glance +to tell me that she had found Hezekiah's slipper. + +"Mr. Ames," she began, "as you have absented yourself from the library +all evening, I assume that you have been busy studying my chimneys and +seeking for the ghost of that British soldier who was so wantonly slain +upon the site of this house." + +"I am glad to say that not only is your surmise correct, Miss +Hollister, but that I have made great progress in both directions." + +"Do you mean to say that you have really found traces of the ghost?" + +"Not only that, Miss Hollister, but I have met the ghost face to +face,--even more, I have had speech with him!" + +Her face brightened, her eyes flashed. It was plain that she was +immensely pleased. + +"And are you able to say, from your encounter, that he is in fact a +British subject, uneasily haunting this house in America long after the +Declaration of Independence and Washington's Farewell Address have +passed into literature?" + +"You have never spoken a truer word, Miss Hollister. The ghost with +whom or which I have had speech is still a loyal subject of the King of +England. But by means which I am not at liberty to disclose, I have +persuaded him not to visit this house again." + +"Then," said Miss Hollister, "I cannot do less than express my +gratitude; though I regret that you did not first allow me to meet him. +Still, I dare say that we shall find his bones buried somewhere beneath +my foundations. Please assure me that such is your expectation." + +She was leading me into deep water, but I had skirted the coasts of +truth so far; and with Hezekiah on my hands I felt that it was +necessary to satisfy Miss Hollister in every particular. + +"To-morrow, Miss Hollister, I shall take pleasure in showing you +certain hidden chambers in this house which I venture to say will +afford you great pleasure. I have to-night discovered a link between +the mansion as you know it and an earlier house whose timbers may +indeed hide the bones of that British soldier." + +"And as for the chimney?" + +"And as for the chimney, I give you my word as a professional man that +it will never annoy you again, and I therefore beg that you dismiss the +subject from your mind." + +I saw that she was about to recur to the shoe she held in her hand and +at which she glanced frequently with a quizzical expression. This, +clearly, was an issue that must be met promptly, and I knew of no +better way than by lying. Hezekiah herself had plainly stated, on the +morning of that long, eventful day, when she walked into the +breakfast-room in her aunt's absence and explained Cecilia's trip to +town, that it was perfectly fair to dissimulate in making explanations +to Miss Hollister; that, in fact, Miss Octavia enjoyed nothing better +than the injection of fiction into the affairs of the matter-of-fact +day. Here, then, was my opportunity. Hezekiah had thrown the +responsibility of contriving her safe exit upon my hands. No doubt, +while I held the door against her aunt, that remarkable young woman was +coolly sitting on the trunk within, eating another cracker and awaiting +my experiments in the gentle art of lying. + +"Miss Hollister," I began boldly, "the slipper you hold in your hand +belongs to me, and if you have no immediate use for it I beg that you +allow me to relieve you of it." + +"It is yours, Mr. Ames?" + +A lifting of the brows, a widening of the eyes, denoted Miss Octavia's +polite surprise. + +"Beyond any question it is my property," I asserted. + +"Your words interest me greatly, Mr. Ames. As you know, the grim hard +life of the twentieth century palls upon me, and I am deeply interested +in everything that pertains to adventure and romance. Tell me more, if +you are free to do so, of this slipper which I now return to you." + +I received Hezekiah's worn little pump into my hands as though it were +an object of high consecration, and with a gravity which I hope matched +Miss Octavia's own. I was, I think, by this time completely +hollisterized, if I may coin the word. + +"As I am nothing if not frank, Miss Hollister, I will confess to you +that this shoe came into my possession in a very curious way. One day +last spring I was in Boston, having been called there on professional +business. In the evening, I left my hotel for a walk, crossed the +Common, took a turn through the Public Garden, where many devoted +lovers adorned the benches, and then strolled aimlessly along Beacon +Street." + +"I know that historic thoroughfare well," interrupted Miss Hollister, +"as my friend Miss Prudence Biddeford has lived there for half a +century, and once, while I was staying in her house, she gave me her +recipe for Boston brown bread, thereby placing me greatly in her debt." + +"Then, being acquainted with the neighborhood and its sublimated social +atmosphere, you will be interested in the experience I am about to +describe," I continued, reassured by Miss Octavia's sympathetic +attention to my recital. "I was passing a house which I have not since +been able to identify exactly, though I have several times revisited +Boston in the hope of doing so, when suddenly and without any warning +whatever this slipper dropped at my feet. All the houses in the +neighborhood seemed deserted, with windows and doors tightly boarded, +and my closest scrutiny failed to discover any opening from which that +slipper might have been flung. The region is so decorous, and acts of +violence are so foreign to its dignity and repose, that I could scarce +believe that I held that bit of tan leather in my hand. Nor did its +unaccountable precipitation into the street seem the act of a +housemaid, nor could I believe that a nursery governess had thus sought +diversion from the roof above. I hesitated for a moment not knowing +how to meet this emergency; then I boldly attacked the bell of the +house from which I believed the slipper to have proceeded. I rang +until a policeman, whose speech was fragrant of the Irish coasts, bade +me desist, informing me that the family had only the previous day left +for the shore. The house he assured me was utterly vacant. That, Miss +Hollister, is all there is of the story. But ever since I have carried +that slipper with me. It was in my pocket to-night as I traversed the +upper halls of your house, seeking the ghost of that British soldier, +and I had just discovered my loss when I heard you calling. In +returning it you have conferred upon me the greatest imaginable favor. +I have faith that sometime, somewhere, I shall find the owner of that +slipper. Would you not infer, from its diminutive size, and the fine, +suggestive delicacy of its outlines that the owner is a person of +aristocratic lineage and of breeding? I will confess that nothing is +nearer my heart than the hope that one day I shall meet the young +lady--I am sure she must be young--who wore that slipper and dropped it +as it seemed from the clouds, at my feet there in sedate Beacon Street, +that most solemn of residential sanctuaries." + +"Mr. Ames," began Miss Hollister instantly, with an assumed severity +that her smile belied, "I cannot recall that my niece Hezekiah ever +visited in Beacon Street; yet I dare say that if she had done so and a +young man of your pleasing appearance had passed beneath her window, +one of her slippers might very easily have become detached from +Hezekiah's foot and fallen with a nice calculation directly in front of +you. But now, Mr. Ames, will you kindly carry your candle into that +trunk-room?" + +And I had been pluming myself upon the completeness of my +hollisterization! There was nothing for me but to obey, and my heart +sank as my imagination pictured Hezekiah's discomfiture when we should +find her seated on the huge trunk behind the door. And that stockinged +foot already called in appealing accents to the shoe I held in my hand! +The foundations of the world shook as I remembered the compact by which +Hezekiah was excluded from the house, and realized what the impending +discovery would mean to Cecilia, her father, and the wayward Hezekiah, +too! But I was in for it. Miss Octavia indicated by an imperious nod +that I was to precede her into the trunk-room, and I strode before her +with my candle held high. + +But the sprites of mystery were still abroad at Hopefield. The room +was unoccupied save for the trunks. Hezekiah had vanished. Instead of +sitting there to await the coming of her aunt, she had silently +departed, without leaving a trace. Miss Hollister glanced up at the +trap-door in the ceiling, and so did I. It was closed, but I did not +doubt that Hezekiah had crawled through it and taken herself to the +roof. Miss Octavia would probably order me at once to the battlements; +but worse was to come. + +"Mr. Ames," she said, "will you kindly lift the lid of that largest +trunk." + +I had not thought of this, and I shuddered at the possibilities. + +She indicated the trunk upon which Hezekiah had sat and nibbled her +cracker not more than ten minutes before. Could it be possible that +when I lifted the cover that golden head would be found beneath? My +life has known no blacker moment than that in which I flung back the +lid of that trunk. I averted my eyes in dread of the impending +disclosure and held the candle close. + +But the trunk was empty, incredibly empty! My courage rose again, and +I glanced at Miss Octavia triumphantly. I even jerked out the trays to +allay any lingering suspicion. Why had I ever doubted Hezekiah? Who +was she, the golden-haired daughter of kings, to be caught in a trunk? +She had slipped up the ladder while I talked to her aunt and was even +now hiding on the roof; but it was not for me to make so treasonable a +suggestion. Miss Octavia might press the matter further if she liked, +but I would not help her to trap Hezekiah. + +Miss Hollister did not, to my surprise and relief, suggest an +inspection of the roof. She nodded her head gravely and passed out +into the hall. + +"Mr. Ames, if I implied a moment ago that I doubted your story of the +dropping of that tan pump from a Beacon Street roof or window, I now +tender you my sincerest apologies." + +She put out her hand, smiling charmingly. + +"Pray return to the occupations which were engaging you when I +interrupted you. You have never stood higher in my regard than at this +moment. To-morrow you may tell me all you please of the ghost and the +mysteries of this house, and I dare say we shall find the bones of that +British soldier somewhere beneath the foundations. As for that +trifling bit of leather you hold in your hand, it's rather passe for +Beacon Street. The next time you tell that story I suggest that you +play your game of drop the slipper from a window in Rittenhouse Square, +Philadelphia. Still, as I always keep an umbrella in the check-room of +the Parker House, I would not have you imagine that I look upon Boston +as an unlikely scene for romance. The last time I was there a Mormon +missionary pressed a tract upon me in the subway, and I can't deny that +I found it immensely interesting." + + + + +XV + +LOSS OF THE SILVER NOTE-BOOK + +Hezekiah on the roof was safe for a time. Miss Octavia's gentle +rejection of my Beacon Street anecdote and her intimation that Hezekiah +had been an unbilled participant in the comedy of the ghost had been +disquieting, and in my relief at her abandonment of the search I +loitered on downstairs with my hostess. I wished to impress her with +the idea that I was without urgent business. Hezekiah would, beyond +doubt, amuse herself after her own fashion on the roof until I was +ready to release her. As I had quietly locked the trunk-room door and +carried the key in my pocket I was reasonably sure of this. Humility +is best acquired through tribulation, and as Hezekiah sat among the +chimney-crocks nursing one stockinged foot and waiting for me to turn +up with her lost slipper, it would do her no harm to nibble the bitter +fruit of repentance with another biscuit. I should find her much less +sure of herself when I saw fit to seek her on the roof. It was a +pretty comedy we were playing, but it was best that she should not too +complacently take all the curtains. Hezekiah's naughtiness had been +diverting up to a point now reached and passed, but the time had +arrived for remonstrance, admonition, discipline. And it should be my +grateful task to point out the error of her ways and urge her into +safer avenues of conduct. Such were my reflections as I attended Miss +Octavia in her descent. + +The memoranda of my adventures at Hopefield Manor fall under two +general headings. On the one hand was the ghost and the library +chimney; on the other the extraordinary gathering of Cecilia's suitors. +As I followed at Miss Octavia's side, she seemed to have dismissed the +ghost and the fractious chimney from her mind; her humor changed +completely. As in the morning when, unaccountably abandoning her +habitual high-flown speech, she had asked me about Cecilia's silver +note-book, she seemed troubled; and when we had reached the second +floor she paused and lost herself in unwonted preoccupation. + +"Let us sit here a moment," she said, indicating a long davenport in +the broad hall. For the first time her manner betrayed weariness. She +laid her hand quietly on my arm and looked at me fixedly. "Arnold," +she said,--"you will let me call you Arnold, won't you?" she added +plaintively, and never in my life had I been so touched by anything so +sweet and gentle and kind,--"Arnold, if an old woman like me should do +a very foolish thing in following her own whims and then find that she +had probably committed herself to a course likely to cause unhappiness, +what would you advise her to do about it?" + +"Miss Hollister," I answered, "if you trusted Providence this morning +to send you a corps of servants when yours had been most unfortunately +scattered by ghosts or rumors of ghosts, why will you not continue to +have confidence that your affairs will always be directed by agencies +equally alert and beneficent?" + +She flashed upon me that rare wonderful smile of hers; she looked me in +the eyes quizzically with her head bent slightly to one side; but for +once her usual readiness seemed to have forsaken her. Could it be +possible that she was losing faith in her own play-world, and that the +tuneful trumpets of adventure and romance which she had set vibrating +on her own key jarred dully in her ears? It passed swiftly through my +mind that it was incumbent on me to win her back to complete belief in +the potency of the oracles that had called to her old age. She had +dipped her paddle into bright waters and had splashed up all manner of +gay imaginings, and what disasters awaited her now if she beached her +argosy and found no gold at the end of the rainbow! It occurred to me, +prosaic man and chimney-doctor that I was, that no one should be +disappointed who has heard the dream-gods calling at twilight, or +wakened to the chanting of the capstan-song, or heard the timbers +creaking in the stout old caravel of romance as it wallows in the seas +that wash the happy isles. I had not crawled through so many chimneys +but that I still believed that dreams come true, not because they will +but because they must! And in the case of Miss Octavia Hollister I +felt a great responsibility; for what irremediable loss might not +result to a world too little given these days to dreaming, if she, who +at sixty had turned her heart trustfully to adventure, should find only +sorrow and disappointment? The thing must not be! I was feeling the +least bit elated over my success in solving the riddle of the ghost, +and I knew that the hidden chambers and stair would delight her when I +revealed them on the morrow; so I quite honestly sought to restore her +to the joy of life. I felt that she was waiting for me to speak +further, and I plunged ahead. + +"Our meeting in the Asolando was the most interesting thing that ever +happened to me, Miss Hollister. I was rapidly becoming hopelessly +cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in to saucy doubts and fears as to +the promise of life held out to us in the nursery, where, indeed, all +education should begin and end. Your appearance at the Asolando that +afternoon was well-timed to save me from death in a world that was +rapidly losing for me all its illusion and witchery. But now that you +have so readily won me back to the true faith, I beg of you do not +yourself revert to the dreary workaday world from which you rescued me." + +I had never in my life spoken more sincerely. I had never been so +happy as since I knew her, and I was pleading for myself as well as for +her--there where, from her own doorstep and in her own garden, one who +listened attentively might hear the faint roar of trains bound toward +the teeming city along iron highways. It was with relief that I saw my +words had struck home. She touched my hand lightly; then she took it +in both her own. + +"You really believe that; you are not merely trying to please me?" + +"I was never half so much in earnest! Please go on in the way you have +begun. And have no fear that the charts will mislead you, or that the +seas will grind your bark on hidden shoals. Shipwreck, you know, is +one of the greatest joys of our adventures,--we have to be wrecked +first before we find the island of the treasure-chests." + +She sighed softly, but I felt that her spirits were rising. + +"But those men down there? How shall I manage that?" she asked eagerly. + +I snapped my fingers. We must get back into the air again. And it was +remarkable how readily my long-untried wings bore me upward. The +earth, after all, does not bind us so fast! + +"I don't know the game; but I have found out a lot of things without +being told, so tell me nothing! Remember that I have something quite +remarkable, startling even, to show you to-morrow. I have even +overcome, you know, the obstacle you placed in the way of my +discoveries by sending in ahead of me this morning for the plans of the +house." + +I watched her narrowly, but she was in no wise discomfited. + +"Well, I burned them the moment Hilda brought them back," she laughed. +"I had faith in you, and I wanted you to manage it all for yourself. I +rather guessed that you would go to Pepperton. That was when I still +believed." + +"But you must go on believing. Make-believing is the main cornerstone +and the keystone of the arch of the happy life." + +"You are sure you are not mocking a foolish old woman?" + +"You are the wisest woman I ever knew!" I asserted, and my heart was in +the words. + +"I believe you have persuaded me; but Cecilia"-- + +She was again at the point of loosening her hold upon the cord that +linked her shallop to Ariel's isle, but my own youth was resurgent in +me. + +I rose hastily, the better to break the current of her thought. + +"Those men down there! They are in the hands of a higher fate than we +control. I don't know the game"-- + +"But if"--she broke in. + +"But if you gave away the secret, explained it to me, you would throw +me back into my darkest chimney to hope no more. Leave it to me; trust +me; lean upon me! I assure you that all will be well." + +She bent her head and yielded herself to reverie for a moment. Then +she sprang to her feet in that indescribably light, graceful way that +erased at least fifty of her years from the reckoning, and was herself +again. + +"Arnold Ames," she said, laughing a little but gazing up at me with +unmistakable confidence and liking in her eyes, "we will go through +with this to the end. And whether that slipper really fell at your +feet in Beacon Street or in the even less likely precincts of +Rittenhouse Square, or under the windows of the Spanish Embassy in +Washington, I believe that you are my good knight, and that you will +see me safely through this singular adventure." + +And I, Arnold Ames, but lately a student of chimneys, bent and kissed +Miss Octavia's hand. + +[Illustration: And I bent and kissed Miss Octavia's hand.] + +She led the way to the library, where I thought it well to appear for a +moment, and I was heartily glad that I did so. It was joy enough for +any man that he should have earned such glances of hatred and suspicion +as the suitors bent upon me. There they were, some standing, some +seated, about Cecilia. I bowed low from the door, feeling that to +offer my hand to these gentlemen in their present temper would be too +severe a strain upon their manners. As Miss Octavia appeared, several +of them advanced courteously and engaged her in conversation. She +found a seat and called the others to her, on the plea that she wished +to ask them their opinion touching some matter,--I believe it was a +late rumor that Andree, who had gone ballooning to discover the +Hyperboreans, had been heard of somewhere. + +Cecilia appeared distrait, and I wondered what new turn her affairs had +taken. She rose as I crossed the room, and from her manner I judged +that she welcomed this chance of addressing me. + +"You have scorned the library to-night. Has there been trouble? Is +Aunt Octavia alarmed about anything?" + +I was sure that this inquiry covered some ulterior question. Hartley +Wiggins, listening with a bored air to Miss Octavia's discussion of +Andree's fate, glanced in our direction with manifest displeasure in +our propinquity. Cecilia Hollister was a beautiful, charming woman of +the world, but I felt her spell less to-night. It may be that the +presence of Hezekiah's slipper in my inside coat-pocket, pressing +rather insistently against my ribs, acted as a counter-irritant. I +certainly could not imagine myself possessed of one of Cecilia's +slippers! If I had tried my fictitious Beacon Street episode on +Cecilia, she would undoubtedly have expressed her scorn of me. The +hollisteritis germ, that had heretofore infected me only +intermittently, was now exerting its full tonic power. In trying to +hold Miss Octavia to her covenants with the lords of romance, I had +strengthened my own confidence in their bold emprise. The gravity with +which the suitors gave heed to Miss Octavia's ideas on arctic +ballooning touched my humor. Cecilia had but to state her perplexity +and I would interest myself promptly in her business. If I had been +asked that night to enlist in the most hopeless causes I should have +done so without a quibble, and died cheerfully under any barricade. + +Our time was short; at any moment the suitors might cease covertly +glaring at me, drift away from Miss Octavia, and interpose themselves +between me and the girl on whom they had set their collective hearts. + +"You are in difficulty, Miss Cecilia," I said; "please tell me in what +way I may serve you." + +"I don't know why I should appeal to you"-- + +"No reason is necessary. I have told you before that you need only to +command me. We may be interrupted at any moment. Pray go on." + +"I have lost an article of the greatest value to me. It has been taken +from my room." + +For a moment only I read distrust and suspicion in her eyes as it +occurred to her that I had access to every part of the house; but my +manner seemed to restore her confidence. And she could not have +forgotten that her own father had met her secretly on the roof of a +house that was denied him, and that I was perfectly cognizant of the +fact. + +"I am sure you can be of assistance," she said. "There's something +behind this ghost-story; some one has been in and about the house; you +believe that?" + +"Yes. There has really been a sort of ghost, you know." + +She shrugged her shoulders. Cecilia had no patience with ghosts, and +we were losing time. My conversation with Cecilia was annoying +Wiggins, as was plain from his nervousness. Wiggins's courtesy was +unfailing, but there are points at which the restraints of civilization +snap. Cecilia realized that time passed and that she had not stated +her difficulty. She now lowered her voice and spoke with great +earnestness. + +"I went to my room for a moment, while Aunt Octavia was above, with you +I suppose, just after the chimney gave another of its strange +demonstrations. I remembered that I had left my little silver-bound +book, that I usually carry with me, on my dressing-room table. It +contains a memorandum of great importance to me. It positively cannot +be duplicated. I am sure it was there when I came down to dinner. But +it was not on my dressing-table or anywhere to be found." + +"You may be mistaken as to where you left it. You would not be +absolutely positive that you left it on the dressing-table?" + +"There is not the slightest question about it. I had been looking at +it just before dinner. I had sent you a note, you know, immediately +after you came back, and hurried down to see you." + +"Yes. I recall that. You were in the library when I came down. And I +think I remember having seen the little trinket,--slightly smaller than +a card-case, silver-backed and only a few leaves. You had it in your +hand the other night when I came in after Mr. Hume had left." + +She flushed slightly at this, but readily acquiesced in my description. +Miss Octavia's inquiry as to whether I had seen the book came back to +me; and no less clearly her withdrawal of her question almost the +moment she had spoken it. + +I felt the sudden impingement of Hezekiah's slipper upon my own +conscience, if I may so state the matter. Hezekiah, playing ghost, had +confessed to me that she had visited Cecilia's room. Hezekiah, amusing +herself with the library chimney and frightening the servants by +stealing into the forbidden house through the coal-hole, was a culprit +to be scolded and forgiven; but what of Hezekiah mischievously filching +an article of real value to her sister! I did not like this turn of +affairs. I must get back to the roof, find Hezekiah, and compel her to +return the silver book. Only by tactfully managing this could I serve +well all the members of the house of Hollister. But first I must leave +Cecilia with a tranquil mind. + +"I thank you for confiding this matter to me, Miss Hollister. Please +do not attach suspicion to any one until I have seen you again." + +"But if you should be unable to restore"-- + +"I assure you that the book is not lost. It has been mislaid, that's +all. I shall return it to you at breakfast. I give you my word." + +"Do you really mean it?" she faltered. "Please keep this from Aunt +Octavia! I can't tell you how important it is that she be kept in +ignorance of my loss. The consequences, if she knew, might be very +distressing." + +I could not for the life of me see what great importance could attach +to those few leaves of paper in their silver case, but if Miss Octavia +and Hezekiah were interested in it as well as Cecilia, it must have a +significance wholly unrelated to its intrinsic value. It is the way of +professional detectives to suggest impossible theories merely to +conceal their own plans and intentions, and as I had reached a point +where my tongue was astonishingly glib in subterfuge and evasion, I +suggested that it might perhaps have been one of the new servants, or +indeed the Swedish maid. + +"We will look into the matter, Miss Hollister. At breakfast I shall +have something to report. Meanwhile silence is the word!" + +Miss Octavia was carrying the invincible John Stewart Dick away to the +billiard-room. He glared at me murderously as he trailed glumly after +the lady of the manor. The others were crowding about Cecilia again, +and I yielded to them willingly. As I sauntered toward the door Ormsby +detained me a moment. His manner was arrogant and he hissed rather +than spoke. + +"I'm directed to command your presence at the Prescott Arms to-morrow +at twelve o'clock. The business is important." + +"I regret, my dear brother, that I shall be unable to sit with you at +that hour in committee of the whole, and for two reasons. The first is +that I am paired with Lord Arrowood. You refused to take him into your +base compact, and allowed him to be thrown out of the inn for not +paying his bill. The act was deficient in generosity and gallantry." + +"Then I suppose you would think it a fine thing for such a pauper to +marry a woman like that,--like that, I say?" and he jerked his head +toward Cecilia. + +"I consider a lord of Arrowood as good as the proprietor of a +knitting-mill any day, if you press me for an opinion," I replied +amiably. + +"And this from a chimney-sweep?" he sneered. + +"You flatter me, my dear sir. I've renounced soot and become a +gentleman adventurer merely to prevent a type that long illumined +popular fiction from becoming extinct. I advise you to fill the void +existing in the heavy-villain class; believe me, your talents would +carry you far. Study Dumas and forget the wool-market, and you will +lead a happier life. My second reason for declining to meet you at the +Arms at twelve to-morrow is merely that the hour is inconvenient. I +assume that you mean to urge luncheon upon me, and I never eat before +one. My doctor has warned me to avoid early luncheons if I would +preserve my figure, of which you may well believe me justly proud." + +"You're a coward, that's all there is to that. I dare you to come!" + +"Well, as I think of it I 'd rather be dared than invited. If I find +it quite convenient I shall drop in. But you need n't keep the waffles +hot for me. Good evening." + +It did not seem possible that I, the timid, uncombative and unathletic, +had thus cavalierly addressed a dignified gentleman in a white +waistcoat who was perfectly capable of knocking me down with a slap in +the face. Valor, I aver, is only another of the offsprings of +necessity. + + + + +XVI + +JACK O' LANTERN + +I hurried back to the trunk-room and had soon gained the roof. The +moon was harassed by flying clouds that obscured it fitfully, and a +keen wind swept the hills. I crept over the several levels of roof +thinking that any moment I should come upon Hezekiah; I searched a +second time, peering behind chimney-pots, and into dark angles; but to +my disappointment and chagrin my young lady of the single slipper was +nowhere in sight. I found, however, lying near the library chimney, a +trunk-tray that required no explanation. With this Hezekiah had +blocked the flue, and I smiled as I pictured her tip-toeing to reach +the chimney-crock, and dropping the tray across the top. How gleefully +she must have chuckled as she waited for the flue to fill and send the +smoke ebbing back into the library, to the discomfiture of her aunt and +sister and the suitors gathered about the hearth! The spirit of +mischief never whispered into a prettier ear a trick better calculated +to cause confusion. + +I had thought Hezekiah secure when I locked the trunk-room door, but I +had not counted upon the versatility and resourcefulness of that young +person. I dropped to the second roof-level and inspected the +down-spouts, but it was incredible that she had sought the earth by +this means. I swung myself to a third level, and after much groping +for my bearings, decided that an athletic girl of Hezekiah's +venturesome disposition might, if she set no great store by her neck, +clamber off the kitchen-roof by means of a tall maple whose branches +now raspingly called attention to their slight contact with the house. +It was here that the walls of Hopefield thrust themselves into the +shoulder of a rough rocky knoll, and it was perfectly clear now that +the chambers of the earlier house around which the mansion had been +built were neatly enfolded by the walls on the east side. + +As the moon cruised into a patch of clear sky something white fluttered +from a maple limb, and I bent and pulled it free. I took counsel of a +match behind the kitchen chimney, and found that it was a handkerchief +that had been knotted to the tip of the bough. No one but Hezekiah +would have thought of marking her trail in this fashion. I held it to +my face, and that faint perfume that had been a mystifying +accompaniment of the passing of the mansion ghost became nothing more +unreal than the orris in Hezekiah's handkerchief-case. The wind +whipped the bit of linen spitefully in my hands. I reasoned that if +Hezekiah the inexplicable had not meant for me to know the manner of +her exit she need not have left this plain hint behind; but the swaying +maple bough did not tempt me. I hurried back across the roof to secure +the trunk-tray, resolved to dispose of it, seek the open, and find the +errant Hezekiah if she still lingered in the neighborhood. + +I looked off across the windy landscape before descending, and as my +eyes ranged the dark I caught the glimmer of a light, as of a lantern +borne in the hand, in the meadow beyond the garden. It paused, and was +swung back and forth by its unseen bearer. It shed a curious yellow +light and not the white flame of the common lantern; and now it rose a +trifle higher and slowly resolved itself into a weird fantastic face. + +Three minutes later I was out of the house, using the backstairs to +avoid the company in the library, and had crossed the garden and +crawled through the hedge. As I rose to my feet a voice greeted me +cheerfully,-- + +"Well done, Chimney-Man! You were a little slow hitting the trail, but +you do pretty well, considering. How did you manage with Aunt Octavia +about that slipper? I had a narrow escape in the second-floor hall, +when I came out of Cecilia's room. I must have lowered a record +getting upstairs. And one shoe is n't a bit comfortable. Allow me to +relieve you!" + +"Here's your slipper. You ought to be ashamed of yourself." + +"For losing my slipper? I thought Cinderella had made that +respectable." + +She placed her hand on my shoulder, lifted her foot, and drew the pump +on with a single tug. + +"Well, what did Aunt Octavia say?" + +"Oh, she had thoughts too dark to express. You probably heard what we +said. It was she who found the slipper!" + +Hezekiah laughed. The wind caught up that laugh and whisked it away +jealously. + +"She found it and carried it to you, Chimney-Man, and I skipped just as +you began that beautiful story about finding it in Beacon Street. +Hurry and tell me how you got me out of it." + +"How did you know I would try to explain it? You did a perfectly +foolhardy thing in roaming the house that way, scaring Lord Arrowood +nearly to death, to say nothing of me. Why should I help you?" + +"Oh, you're a man and I was just a little girl who had lost her +slipper," she replied. "I was sure you would fix it up." + +"Well, I like your nerve, Hezekiah! I had to lie horribly to explain +the slipper, and Miss Octavia did n't swallow more than half my yarn." + +"Oh, well, if it was a good story, Aunt Octavia would n't mind. She'd +have minded, though, if you had n't tried to get me out of it. That's +the way with Aunt Octavia. I hope you made a romantic tale of it." + +"I can't say that it would place me among the great masters of fiction, +Hezekiah, but as lies go I think it had merit. And I 'll improve if I +stay here much longer." + +"Oh, you'll stay all right. Aunt Octavia has no intention of letting +you go. When she left the Asolando that afternoon she met you, she had +her plans all made for kidnapping you." + +"She did n't tell you so, did she?" + +"No; because I have n't seen her and I'm not supposed to see her, you +know, until Cecilia is all fixed." + +"Married?" + +"Um," replied Hezekiah. + +She drew from behind a boulder by which we stood a pumpkin of portable +size, which I surmised had been carved into the most hideous of jack o' +lanterns by the shrewd hand of Hezekiah. I took it from her with the +excuse of relieving her, but really to turn the light of the fearsome +thing more directly upon her. The wind blew her hair about her face; +hers was an elfish face to-night. With a pleasant tingling I met her +eyes. The light of a jack o' lantern is not of the earth earthy. Even +when you know perfectly well that it's only a candle stuck in a +pumpkin, you are not fully satisfied of its mundane character. In its +glow one becomes a conspirator, ready for treason, stratagems and +spoils. More concretely, in these moments a small archipelago of +freckles revealed itself about Hezekiah's nose and caused my heart to +palpitate strangely. Her sun-browned cheek was perilously near. I +hoped that she would bend forever over the lantern, so that I might not +lose the tiny shadows of her lashes, or, again, the laughter of her +brown eyes as she glanced up to ask my judgment as to the security of +the candle. She viewed her handiwork with feigned solicitude, the tip +of her tongue showing between her lips. Then the mirth in her bubbled +out, and she drew away and clapped her hands together like a child. + +"Come!" she cried. "If you are good and won't begin preaching about my +sins, I'll show you the funniest thing you ever saw in your life." + +In my joy of seeing her I was neglecting Cecilia's commission. Very +likely Hezekiah had forgotten all about her theft; hers, I reasoned, +was a nature that delighted in the nearest pleasure. I would follow +her jack o' lantern round the world for the chance of seeing the fun +brighten in her brown eyes, but I had made a promise to Cecilia and I +meant to fulfill it. + +She led me now across the meadow, over a stone wall, up a steep slope, +and by devious ways through a strip of woodland. I bore the jack o' +lantern,--she had bidden me do it, with some notion, I did not +question, of making me _particeps criminis_ in whatever mischief was +afoot. Dignified conduct in a man of twenty-eight, in his best evening +clothes, carrying a jack o' lantern over stone walls, under clumps of +briar, and through woods whose boughs clawed the night wildly! The +moon lost and found under the flying scud was in keeping with the +general irresponsibility of a world ruled by Hezekiah. + +She swung along ahead of me with the greatest ease and certainty. +Occasionally she flung some word back at me or whistled a few bars of a +tune, and when I slipped and nearly fell on a smooth slope she laughed +mockingly and bade me not lose the pumpkin. Once, when a boy, I stole +a watermelon and bore it a mile to the rendezvous of my pirate band +camped at a riverside; but carrying a pumpkin, even a hollow one, is +attended with manifold discomforts. It would help, I reflected, to +know just what I was lugging it for, but Hezekiah vouchsafed nothing. +When I threatened to drop the grinning gargoyle she laughed and told me +to trot along and not be silly; and a moment later she stopped and +demanded that I repeat fully the story I had told her aunt of the +finding of the slipper. + +"You are better than I thought you were, Chimney-Man!" she declared, +when I had concluded and added her aunt's comment. "You may be sure +that tickled Aunt Octavia. You can lie almost as well as an architect. +Aunt Octavia says architects are better liars than dress-makers." + +"It was my weakness for the truth that caused me to abandon +architecture. For heaven's sake, what are you up to?" + +I had kept little account of the direction of our flight, and I was +surprised that we had now reached the stile over which I had watched +the passing of the suitors on the afternoon of my meeting with Hezekiah +in the orchard. + +"This is the appointed place," she remarked, taking the pumpkin from me +and dropping down on the far side of the stile. + +"Hezekiah, I've trotted across most of Westchester County after you, +and my arm is paralyzed from carrying that pumpkin. I must know what +you're up to right here, or I'll go home. Besides, there's a mist +falling and you'll be soaked. What do you suppose your father thinks +of your absence at this time of night?" + +"Oh, he'll never forgive me for not letting him in on this. This is +the grandest thing I ever thought of. Sit on this step and gently +incline your ear toward the house. It's about time those gentlemen +were leaving Cecilia, and they'll be galloping for their inn in a +minute, and then"-- + +Hezekiah whistled the rest of it. + +While we waited, she bade me reset the candle and snuff the wick, which +I did of necessity with my fingers. Sitting on a stile with a pretty +girl is an experience that has been commended by the balladists, but +surely this felicity loses nothing where the night is fine. When you +get used to sitting in a drizzle in your dress-suit, while your +shirt-bosom assumes the consistency of a gum shoe and your collar glues +itself odiously to your neck, I dare say the ordeal may be borne +cheerfully, but my expressions of discomfort seemed only to amuse +Hezekiah. While we waited for I knew not what, I tried once or twice +to revert to the silver note-book, but without success. Hezekiah was a +mistress of the art of evasion with her tongue as well as her feet! + +"Wait till the evening performance is over and I'll talk about that. +'Sh! Quiet! Crawl over there out of the way, and when I say run, beat +it for the road." + +These last phrases were uttered in a whisper, her face close to my ear. +She gave me a little push, and I withdrew a few yards and waited. The +ground, I may say, was wet, and the drizzle had become a monotonous +autumn rain. + +The light of the lantern fell warmly upon Hezekiah's face as she held +its illumined countenance toward her, crouching on the stile-steps. I +heard now what her keener ear had caught earlier--the tramp of feet +along the path. The suitors were returning to the inn, and the voices +of one or two of them reached me. One--I thought it was Ormsby--was +execrating the weather. They were stepping along briskly, and my +remembrance of their retreat over this same stile through the amber +evening dusk was so vivid that I knew just how they would appear if a +light suddenly fell upon the path. + +[Illustration: The light of the lantern fell warmly upon Hezekiah's +face.] + +The nature of Hezekiah's undertaking suddenly dawned upon me. No one +but Hezekiah could ever have devised anything so preposterous, so +utterly lawless; but in spite of myself I waited in breathless +eagerness for the outcome. I could not have interfered now, if I had +wished to do so, without betraying her and involving myself in a +predicament that could not redound to my credit. + +Nearer and nearer came the patter of feet, and I heard, for I could not +see, the scraping of Hezekiah's slipper,--a wet little shoe by now!--as +she crept higher on our side of the stile. The first suitor groped +blindly for the steps, slipped on the wet plank, growled, and rose to +try again. That growl marked for me the leader of the van. Hartley +Wiggins, beyond a doubt, and in no good humor, I guessed! The others, +I judged, had trodden upon one another's heels at the moment Wiggins +stumbled. Thus let us imagine their approach--six gentlemen in top +hats headed for a stile on a chilly night of rain. + +It was at this strategic moment that Hezekiah pushed into the middle of +the stile-platform, its grinning face turned toward the advancing +suitors, the jack o' lantern her hand had fashioned. + +I marked its position by its faint glow an instant, but an instant +only. The world reeled for a moment before the sharp cry of a man in +fear. It cut the dark like a lash, and close upon it the second man +yelled, in a different key, but no less in accents of terror. The +first arrival had flung himself back, and so close upon him pressed the +others and so unexpected was the halt, that the nine men seemed to have +flung themselves together and to be struggling to escape from the +hideous thing that had interposed itself in their path. + +All was over in a moment. In the midst of the panic the lantern winked +out, and instantly Hezekiah was beside me. + +"Skip!" she commanded in a whisper; and catching my hand she led me off +at a brisk run. When we had gone a dozen rods she paused. We heard +voices from the stile, where the gentlemen were still engaged in +disentangling themselves; and then the planks boomed to their steps as +they crossed. They talked loudly among themselves discussing the cause +of their discomfiture. The lantern, I may add, had been knocked off +the stile by the thoughtful Hezekiah when she blew out the light. + +A moment more and all sounds of the suitors had died away. I stood +alone with Hezekiah in the midst of a meadow. She was breathing hard. +Suddenly she threw up her head, struck her hands together, and stamped +her foot upon the wet sod. I had waited for an outburst of laughter +now that we were safely out of the way, but I had reasoned without my +Hezekiah. Her mood was not the mood of mirth. + +"Well, Hezekiah," I said when I had got my wind, "you pulled off your +joke, but you don't seem to be enjoying it. What's the matter?" + +"Oh, that Hartley Wiggins! I might have known it!" + +"Known what?" I asked, pricking up my ears. + +"That he would be afraid of a pumpkin with a candle inside of it. Did +you hear that yell?" + +"Anybody would have yelled," I suggested. "I think I should have +dropped dead if you'd tried it on me." + +"No, you would n't," she asserted with unexpected flattery. + +"Don't be deceived, Hezekiah; I should have been scared to death if +that thing had popped up in front of me." + +"I don't believe it. I gave you a worse test than that. When I +switched off the lights and swung a feather duster down the stair-well +by a string and tickled your face you did n't make a noise like a +circus calliope scaring horses in Main Street, Podunk. But that +Wiggins man!" + +"He's a friend of mine and as brave as a lion. Out in Dakota the +sheriff used to get him to go in and quiet things when the boys were +shooting up the town." + +"Maybe; but he shied at a pumpkin and can be no true knight of mine. +Cecilia may have him. I always suspected that he was n't the real +thing. Why, he's even afraid of Aunt Octavia!" + +"Well, I rather think _we 'd_ better be!" + +I wanted to laugh, but I did not dare. I was not prepared for the +humor in which the panic of the suitors had left her. I did not quite +make out--and I am uncertain to this day--whether she had really wished +to test the courage of her sister's lovers or whether she had yielded +to a mischievous impulse in carrying the jack o' lantern to the stile +and thrusting it before those serious-minded gentlemen as they returned +from Hopefield. In any event Hartley Wiggins was out of it so far as +she, Hezekiah, was concerned. She trudged doggedly across the field +until we came presently to the highway. + +"My wheel's in the weeds somewhere; please pull it out for me. I'm +going home." + +"But not alone; I can't let you do that, Hezekiah." + +"Oh, cheer up!" she laughed, aroused by my lugubrious tone. "And +here's something you asked me for. Don't drop it. It's Cecilia's +memorandum-book. Give it back to her, and be sure no one sees it, and +you need n't look into it yourself. And we've got to have a talk about +it and Cecilia. Let me see. There's an iron bridge across an arm of +that little lake over there, and just beyond it a big fallen tree. +To-morrow at nine o'clock I'll be there. I've got to tell you +something, Chimney-Man, without really telling you. You'll be there, +won't you?" + +"I'll be there if I'm alive, Hezekiah." + +I had found the wheel and lighted the lamp. She scouted my suggestion +that I find a horse and drive her home. The lighting of the lamp +required time owing to the wind and rain; but when its thin ribbon of +light fell clearly upon the road, she seized the handle-bars and was +ready to mount without ado. + +She gave me her hand,--it was a cold, wet little hand, but there was a +good friendly grip in it. This was the first time I had touched +Hezekiah's hand, and I mention it because as I write I feel again the +pressure of her slim cold fingers. + +"Sorry you spoiled your clothes, but it was in a good cause. And you +'re a nice boy, Chimney-Man!" + +She shot away into the darkness, and the lamp's glow on the road +vanished in an instant; but before I lost her quite, her cheery whistle +blew back to me reassuringly. + + + + +XVII + +SEVEN GOLD REEDS + +I woke the next morning to the banging of Miss Octavia's fowling-piece. +In spite of the crowding incidents of the day and night I had slept +soundly, and save for a stiffness of the legs I was none the worse for +my wetting. The service of the house was perfect, and in response to +my ring a man appeared who declared himself competent to knock my dress +clothes into shape again. + +I should hardly have believed that so much history had been made in a +night, if it had not been for certain indubitable evidence: Cecilia's +silver note-book; Hezekiah's handkerchief, which I had forgotten to +return to her; and a patch of tallow grease from the jack o' lantern +that had attached itself firmly to my coat-cuff. + +Cecilia met me at the foot of the stairs, looking rather worn, I +thought. We were safe from interruption a moment longer, as her aunt's +gun was still booming, and I followed her to the library. + +"Please don't tell me you have failed," she cried tearfully. "That +little book means so much, so very much to us all!" + +"Here it is, Miss Hollister," I said, placing it in her hand without +parley. "I beg to assure you that I return it just as you saw it last. +Please satisfy yourself that it has not been tampered with in any way. +I have not opened it; and it has not left my hand since I recovered it." + +She had almost snatched it from me, and she turned slightly away and +ran hurriedly over the leaves. + +In her relief she laughed happily; and with one of her charming, +graceful gestures she gave me her hand. + +"I thank you, Mr. Ames; thank you! thank you! You have rendered me the +greatest service. And I hope you were able to do so without serious +inconvenience to yourself." + +"On the other hand it was the smallest matter, and instead of being a +trouble I found the greatest pleasure in recovering it." + +I stood with my hands thrust carelessly into my trousers pockets, +rocking slightly upon my heels to convey a sense of the unimportance of +my service. It was a manner I had cultivated to meet the surprise and +gratitude of my clients when I had brought a seemingly incurable flue +into a state of subjection. I think I may have appeared a little +bored, as though I had accomplished a feat that was rather unworthy of +my powers. A doctor who prescribes the wrong pill and finds to his +amazement that it cures the patient, might improve upon that manner, +but not greatly. + +"You naturally wonder, Miss Hollister, how I found this trinket so +readily. And in order that you may not suspect perfectly innocent +persons, I will tell you exactly how I came by it. It was your belief +that you had left it on your dressing-table. But as a memorandum-book +of any character pertains to a writing-desk rather than to a +dressing-table, my interest centred at once upon such writing-table as +you doubtless have in your room." + +"There is a writing-desk, in the corner by the window, but"-- + +"Ah, you are about to repeat your belief that you left the book on the +dressing-table and that it could not have moved to the desk. May I ask +whether you did not, just before you came down to dinner, scribble me a +line asking for an interview?" + +"Why, yes; I remember that perfectly." + +"You wrote in some haste, as indicated by the handwriting in your +message. It is possible that you wrote and destroyed one note, or +perhaps two, before you had expressed yourself exactly to your liking. +We are all of us, with any sort of feeling for style, prone to just +such rejections." + +"It is possible that I did," she replied, coloring slightly. "I was +extremely anxious to see you." + +"Very well, then; is it not possible that in throwing the rejected +correspondence cards into the waste-paper basket that stands beside +your desk,--there is such a basket, is there not?" + +"Yes," she replied breathlessly. + +"Is it not possible, then, that that little booklet, hardly heavier +than paper itself, may have been brushed off without your seeing it?" + +"It is possible; I must admit that it is possible; but"-- + +"It is on that 'but' that any theory implicating another hand must +break. What I have indicated is exactly what must have happened. To +the nice care that characterizes the house-keeping of this +establishment we must now turn. I find that when I go to my own room +after dinner it is always in perfect order,--pens restored to the rack +on my writing-table, brushes laid straight on the dressing-table, and +so on. The well-trained maid who cares for your room, seeing scraps of +paper in the basket by your desk, naturally carried it off. When I +accepted your commission last night I went directly to the cellar, +sought the bin into which waste paper is thrown, and found among old +envelopes and other litter this small trinket, which but for my +promptness might have been lost forever." + +"It does n't seem possible," she faltered. + +"Oh," I laughed easily, "possible or impossible, you could not on the +witness-stand swear that the book had not dropped into the waste-paper +basket precisely as I have described." + +"No, I suppose I couldn't," she answered slowly. + +My powers of mendacity were improving; but her relief at holding the +book again in her hand was so great that she would probably have +believed anything. + +"You see," she said, clasping the book tight, "this was given me for a +particular purpose and it contains a memorandum of greatest importance. +And I was in a panic when I found that it was gone, for my recollection +of certain items I had recorded here was confused, and there was no +possible way of setting myself straight. Now all is clear again. I +feel that I make poor acknowledgment of your service; but if, at any +time"-- + +"Pray think no more of it," I replied; and at this moment Miss +Hollister appeared and called us to breakfast. + +"If it is perfectly agreeable to you, Arnold, I will hear the story of +the finding of the ghost at four o'clock, or just before tea. I have +sent a telegram to Mr. Pepperton asking him to be present. He 's at +his country home in Redding and can very easily motor down. As no +motors are allowed on my premises he shall be met at the gate with a +trap." + +"You have sent for Pepperton!" I exclaimed. + +"That is exactly what I have done, and as he knows that I never accept +apologies under any circumstances, he will not disappoint me. In +addition to reprimanding him for not telling me of the secret passage +in this house, I have another matter that concerns you, Arnold, which I +wish to lay before him. The new cook that Providence sent to my +kitchen yesterday is the best we have had, Cecilia, and I beg that you +both indulge yourselves in a second helping of country scrambled eggs." + +Miss Octavia made no further allusion to the incidents of the night, +but went on turning over her mail. I have neglected to say that her +library contained a most remarkable array of books in praise of man's +fortitude and daring. I have learned later that these had been +assembled for her by a distinguished scholar, and many of them were +rare editions. A "Karlamagnus Saga" elbowed Malory and the "Reali di +Francia;" and Roland's horn challenged in all languages. She greatly +admired and had often visited the Chateau de Luynes, and had a +portfolio filled with water-color and pen-and-ink drawings of it. Such +books as Viollet-le-Duc's "Dictionnaire du Mobilier Francais" I +constantly found lying spread open on the library table. She read +German and French readily, and declared her purpose to attack old +French that she might pursue certain obscure _chansons de geste_ which, +an Oxford professor had told her, were not susceptible of adequate +translation. Why should one read the news of the day when the news of +all time was available! Magazines and reviews she tolerated, but no +newspaper was as good as Froissart. She therefore read newspapers only +through a clipping bureau, which sent her items bearing upon her own +peculiar interests. By some error the story of a heavy embezzlement in +a city bank had that day crept in among a number of cuttings relating +to a ship that had been found somewhere off the Chilean coast with all +sails set and everything in perfect order, but with not a soul on +board. She expressed her bitterest contempt for men in responsible +positions who betrayed their trusts: highway robbery she thought a much +nobler crime, as the robber dignified his act by exposing himself to +personal danger. + +"In our day, Arnold," she said, placing her knife and fork carefully on +her plate, "in our day the ten commandments have lost their moral +significance and retain, I fear, only a very slight literary interest." + +She reminded Cecilia of an appointment to ride that morning; in the +early afternoon she was to install a new kennel-master; and otherwise +there was a full day ahead of her. It was a cheerful breakfast table. +A letter from my assistant confirming his telegraphed resignation did +not disturb me; Miss Octavia showed no further signs of abandoning her +quest of the golden coasts of youth, and Cecilia, having recovered her +notebook, faced the new day cheerfully. + +A little later I met Miss Hollister in the hall dressed for her ride. + +"Arnold, you may ride whenever you like. I may have forgotten to +mention it. What have you on hand this morning?" + +"An appointment with a lady," I replied. + +"If you are about to meet the owner of that Beacon Street slipper I +wish you good luck." + +She was drawing on her gauntlets, and turned away to hide a smile, I +thought; then she tapped me lightly with her riding-crop. + +"Cecilia's silver note-book was missing last night. She told me of her +loss with tears. She has it again this morning. Did you restore it?" + +"It was my good fortune to do so." + +"Then allow me to add my thanks to hers. You are an unusually +practical person, Arnold Ames, as well as the possessor of an +imagination that pleases me. You are becoming more and more essential +to me. Cecilia approaches, and I cannot say more at this time." + +When they had ridden out of the porte-cochere I set off across the +fields to keep my tryst with Hezekiah. The air had been washed sweet +and clean by the rain of the night, and sky was never bluer. I was +surprised at my own increasing detachment from the world. Nothing that +had happened before the Asolando mattered greatly; my meeting with Miss +Octavia Hollister had marked a climacteric from which all events must +now be reckoned. I had embarked with high hope in a profession to +which I had been drawn from youth, had failed utterly to find clients, +and had therefore taken up the doctoring of flues, a vocation whose +honors are few and dubious, and in which I felt it to be damning praise +that I was called the best in America. My days at Hopefield were the +happiest of my life. Few as they had been, they had changed my gray +bleak course into a path bright with promise. The world had been too +much with me, and I had escaped from it as completely as though I had +stepped upon another planet "where all is possible and all unknown." + +I reached the fallen tree that Hezekiah had appointed as our +trysting-place a little ahead of time, and indulged in pleasant +speculations while I waited. I was looking toward the hills expecting +her to come skimming along the highway on her bicycle, when a splash +caused me to turn to the lake. Dull of me not to have known that +Hezekiah would contrive a new entrance for a scene so charmingly set as +this! She had stolen upon me in a light skiff, and laughed to see how +her silent approach startled me. She dropped one oar and used the +other as a paddle, driving the boat with a sure hand through the reeds +into the bank. + + "'Tis morning and the days are long!" + + +Such was Hezekiah's greeting as she jumped ashore. She wore a dark +green skirt and coat, and a narrow four-in-hand cravat tied under a +flannel collar that clasped her throat snugly. A boy's felt hat, with +the brim pinned up in front, covered her head. + +"You seem none the worse for your wetting, Hezekiah. You must have +been soaked." + +"So must you, Chimneys, but you look as fit as I feel, and I never felt +better. Did they catch you crawling in last night?" + +"I did n't see a soul. You know I'm an old member of the family now. +Nobody was ever as nice to me as your Aunt Octavia." + +"How about Cecilia?" + +"Having found her silver note-book and given it back to her before +breakfast, I may say that our relations are altogether cordial." + +"Are you in love with her--yet?" asked Hezekiah, carelessly, tossing a +pebble into the lake. The "yet" was so timed that it splashed with the +pebble. + +"No; not--yet," I replied. + +"It will come," said Hezekiah a little ruefully, casting a pebble +farther upon the crinkled water. + +"You mean, Hezekiah, that men always fall in love with your sister." + +She nodded. + +"Well, she's a good deal of a girl." + +"Beautiful and no end cultivated. They all go crazy about her." + +"You mean Hartley Wiggins and his fellow-bandits at the Prescott Arms." + +"Yes; and lots of others." + +"And sometimes, Hezekiah, it has seemed to you that she got all the +admiration, and that you did n't get your share. So when her suitors +began a siege of the castle whose gates were locked against you, you +plugged the chimney with a trunk-tray, and played at being ghost and +otherwise sought to terrify your sister's lovers." + +"That's not nice, Chimneys. You mean that I'm jealous." + +"No. I don't mean that you are jealous now: I throw it into the remote +and irrevocable past. You were jealous. You don't care so much now. +And I hope you will care less!" + +"That is being impertinent. If you talk that way I shall call you Mr. +Ames and go home!" + +"You can't do that, Hezekiah." + +"I should like to know why not? If you say I 'm jealous of Cecilia +now, or that I ever was, I shall be very, very angry. For it's not +true." + +"No. You see things very differently now. You told me only last night +that Cecilia might have Hartley Wiggins. Assuming that she wants him! +And you and he have been good friends, have n't you? You had good +times on the other side. And while Cecilia was in town assisting +Providence in finding your aunt a cook, you went walking with him." + +"I did, I did!" mocked Hezekiah. "And why do you suppose I did?" + +"Because Wiggy's the best of fellows; a solid, substantial citizen, who +raises wheat to make bread out of." + +"And angel food and ginger cookies," added Hezekiah, feeling absently +in the pockets of her coat. "No, Chimneys, you 're a nice boy and you +don't yell like a wild man when a feather-duster hits you in the dark; +but there are some things you don't know yet." + +"I am here to grow wise at the feet of Hezekiah, Daughter of Kings. +Open the book of wisdom and teach me the alphabet, but don't be sad if +I balk at the grammar." + +"I never knew all the alphabet myself," said Hezekiah dolefully; then +she laughed abruptly. "I was bounced from two convents and no end of +Hudson River and Fifth Avenue education shops." + +"The brutality of that, Hezekiah, wrings my heart! Yet you are the +best teacher I ever had, and I thought I was educated when I met you. +But I had only been to school, which is different. Not until the first +time our eyes met, not until that supreme moment"-- + +"Mr. Ames," Hezekiah interrupted, in the happiest possible imitation of +Miss Octavia's manner, "if you think that, because I am a poor lone +girl who knows nothing of the great, wide world, I am a fair mark for +your cajolery, I assure you that you were never more mistaken in your +life!" + +"You ought n't to mimic your aunt. It is n't respectful; and besides +you have something to tell me. What's all this rumpus about Cecilia's +silver memorandum-book? Suppose we discuss that and get through with +it." + +We were sitting on the fallen tree, which lay partly in the lake, and +Hezekiah leaned over and broke off a number of reeds from the thicket +at the water's edge. Out of her pocket she drew a small penknife and +trimmed them uniformly. + +"You see," she began, biting her lip in the earnestness of her labor, +"I'm going to tell you something, and yet I 'm not going to tell you. +So far as you and I have gone you 've been tolerably satisfactory. If +I did n't think you had some wits in your head I should n't have +bothered with you at all. That's frank, is n't it?" + +"It certainly is. But I'm terribly fussed for fear I may not be equal +to this new ordeal." + +"If you fail we shall never meet again; that's all there is to that. +Now listen real hard. You know something about it already, but not the +main point. Aunt Octavia got father to consent to let her marry us +off--Cecilia and me. Cecilia, being older, came first. I was to keep +out of the way, and father and I were not to come to Aunt Octavia's new +house up there or meddle in any way. While we were abroad I was +treated as a little girl, and not as a grown-up at all. But you see I +'m really nineteen, and some of Cecilia's suitors were nice to me when +we were traveling. They were nice to me on Cecilia's account, you +know." + +"Of course. You're so hard to look at, it must have been painful to +them to be nice to you,--almost like taking poison! Go on, Hezekiah!" + +"You need n't interrupt me like that. Well, as part of the +understanding, and Cecilia agreed to it,--she thought she had to for +papa's sake,--she was to marry a particular man. Do you understand me, +a particular man? Aunt Octavia gave her the little note-book--she +bought it at a shop in Paris at the time Cecilia consented to the +plan--and she was to keep a sort of diary, so that she'd know when the +right man turned up. Now we will drop the note-book for a minute; only +I'll say that Cecilia was to keep the book all to herself and not show +it to any one, not even to Aunt Octavia, you know, until the right man +had asked Cecilia to marry him. Now who do you suppose, Mr. Ames, that +man is?" + +I watched her hands as they deftly cut and fashioned the dry reeds. +The air grew warm as the sun climbed to the zenith, and Hezekiah flung +aside her coat. The breeze caught the ends of her tie and snapped them +behind her. She was wholly absorbed in her task, and no boy could have +managed a pocket-knife better. The first reed she made a trifle longer +than her hand; the succeeding ones she trimmed to graduated lessening +lengths, till seven in all had been cut, and then she notched them. + +"Seven," she murmured, laying them neatly in order on her knee. "I +remember the right number by a poem I read the other day in an old +magazine." + +She reached down and plucked several long leaves of tough grass with +which she began to bind the reeds together, repeating,-- + + "Seven gold reeds grew tall and slim, + Close by the river's beaded brim. + + "Syrnix the naiad flitted past: + Pan, the goat-hoofed, followed fast. + + +"It will be easier," said Hezekiah, "if you hold the pipes while I tie +them." + +I found this propinquity wholly agreeable. It was pleasant to sit on a +log beside Hezekiah. It seemed no far cry to the storied Mediterranean +and Pan and dryads and naiads, as Hezekiah bound her reeds to the music +of couplets. There was no self-consciousness in her recitation; she +seemed to be telling me of something that she had seen herself an hour +ago. + + "He spread his arms to clasp her there + Just as she vanished into air. + + "And to his bosom warm and rough + Drew the gold reeds close enough. + + +"I don't remember the rest," she broke off. "But there! That's a pipe +fit for any shepherd." + +She put it to her lips and blew. I shall not pretend that the result +was melodious: she whistled much better without the reeds; but the +sight of her, sitting on the fallen tree beside the lake, beating time +with her foot, her head thrown back, her eyes half-closed in a mockery +of rapture at the shrill, wheezy uncertainties and ineptitudes she +evoked, thrilled me with new and wonderful longings. A heart, a spirit +like hers would never grow old! She was next of kin to all the +elusive, fugitive company of the elf-world. And on such a pipe as she +had strung together beside that pond, to this day Sicilian shepherd +boys whistle themselves into tune with Theocritus! + +[Illustration: She put it to her lips and blew.] + +"Take it," she said; "I can't tell you more than I have; and yet it is +all there, Chimneys. Read the riddle of the reeds if you can." + +I took the pipe and turned it over carefully in my hands; but I fear my +thoughts were rather of the hands that had fashioned it, the fingers +that had danced nimbly upon the stops. + +"There are seven reeds,--seven," she affirmed. + +She amused herself by skipping pebbles over the surface of the water +while I pondered. And I deliberated long, for one did not like to +blunder before Hezekiah! Then I jumped up and called to her. + +"One, two, three, four, five, six--seven! Not until the seventh man +offers himself shall Cecilia have a husband! Is that the answer?" + +For a moment Hezekiah watched the widening ripples made by the casting +of her last pebble; then she came back and resumed her seat. + +"You have done well, Chimney Man; and now I 'll not make you guess any +more, though I found it all out for myself. When Aunt Octavia gave +that memorandum-book to Cecilia, I knew it must have something to do +with the seventh man. You know I love all Aunt Octavia's nonsense +because it's the kind of foolishness I like myself, and the idea of a +pretty little note-book to write down proposals in was precisely the +sort of thing that would have occurred to my aunt. And it was in the +bargain, too, that she herself should not in any way interfere, or try +to influence the course of events: it should be the seventh suitor, +willy-nilly. And I suspect she's been a little scared too." + +"She has indeed! She was almost ready to throw the whole scheme over +last night. Your naughtiness had got on her nerves." + +"You missed the target that time: Aunt Octavia loves my naughtiness, +and I think she has really been afraid Sir Pumpkin Wiggins would catch +me. Now I did n't roam my aunt's house just for fun. I was doing my +best to keep Cecilia from getting into some scrape about that +seventh-suitor plan. I found out by chance how to get into Hopefield, +and about the hidden stairway and the old rooms tucked away there. +Papa really discovered that. A carpenter in Katonah who worked on the +house helped to build papa's bungalow, and he told us how that ruin +came to be there. That dyspepsia-cure man, who also immortalized +himself by inventing the ribless umbrella, was very superstitious. He +believed that if he built an entirely new house he would die. So he +had his architect build around and retain those two rooms and that +stairway of a house that had been on the ground almost since the +Revolution. Mr. Pepperton, the architect, humored him, but hid the +remains of the relic as far out of sight as possible." + +"Trust Pep for that! And he did it neatly!" + +"Yes; but it did n't save the umbrella-man; he died anyhow; or maybe +his pies killed him. Papa was so curious about it that he took me with +him one night just before Aunt Octavia moved here, and he and I found +the rooms and the stair and the secret spring by which, if you know +just where to poke the wall in the fourth-floor hall, you can disappear +as mysteriously as you please." + +"But how on earth did you darken the halls so easily? You nearly gave +me heart-disease doing that!" + +"Oh, that was a mere matter of a young lady in haste! When I found how +easily I could pass you on the stair it became a fascinating game, and +it was no end of fun to see just how long it would take you to catch +me." + +"I wish, Hezekiah, that you would stay caught!" + +"Be very, very careful, sir! We're talking business now. There's +another ordeal for you before you dare become sentimental." + +"Then hasten; let us be after it." + +"Things are in a serious predicament, I can tell you. I was frightened +when I looked into that note-book,--I did n't like to do that, but I +had to assist Providence a little. Five men have already got their +quietus." + +"Then why don't they clear out, and stop their nonsense?" + +"Oh, it's their pride, I suppose; and every man probably thinks that +when Cecilia has seen a little more of him in particular, in contrast +with the others, he will win her favor. They 're afraid of one +another, those men; that's the reason they've been herding together so +close since that first day you came. Mr. Wiggins was taking it for +granted that he was the whole thing--just like the man!--and those +others forced him to join in some sort of arrangement by which they +were to hang together. These calls in a bunch came from that, as +though any one of them would n't take advantage of the others if he saw +a chance! Some of this I got from Wiggy himself, the rest I just +guessed." + +"But you may not know that they sent a delegation after me into town, +to warn me off the grass." + +"That was Mr. Dick. He never saw me when Cecilia was around. And he +was terribly snippy sometimes, and supercilious; but I'm going to get +even with him. I've about underlined him for number six," she +concluded, with the manner of a queen who, about to give her chief +executioner his orders for the day, glances calmly over the list of +victims. + +"That's a good idea; Dick is insufferable; I hope you have n't counted +wrong." + +"As we were saying, about the note-book," she resumed, "the fifth man +has already been respectfully declined. The dates of the proposals are +written in the note-book; so I learned from the book that Mr. Ormsby, +Mr. Arbuthnot, and Mr. Gorse had proposed on the steamer. Professor +Hume, as you know, tried his luck at Hopefield; and Lord Arrowood must +have stopped Cecilia as she was riding to the station on my bicycle +yesterday morning. His goose is cooked." + +"His gooseberry pie was cooked, but I took it away from him. No pie +sacred to Hezekiah can be confiscated by an indigent lord so long as I +keep my present health and spirits. It's the close season for lords in +Westchester County; I potted the last one. By the way, he thought you +were a real ghost when you were playing tag with him in the dark." + +"He stopped to tell papa good-bye and spoke very highly of you; papa +and you are the only gentlemen he met in America. But now we come to +Mr. Wiggins." + +"We do; and why in the name of all that is beautiful and good has n't +he tried his luck?" + +"Because, knowing Cecilia's admiration for him," replied Hezekiah +demurely, "I have kept him so diverted that he has n't been able to +bring himself to the scratch." + +She examined the palm of her hand critically to allow me time to grasp +this. + +"You did n't want him to blunder in as the first, fourth, or sixth man?" + +Hezekiah gravely nodded her pretty head. + +"And while you were engaged in this sisterly labor, Cecilia has been +afraid that you were seriously interested in him!" + +"That is like Cecilia. She's fine, and would n't cause me trouble for +anything;" and there was no doubt of Hezekiah's sincerity. + +"But now that I see the light and understand all this, how can we make +sure that Wiggy will be on the spot at the right moment? While we sit +here, he may be the sixth man! There's my friend, the eminent thinker +from Nebraska; he's likely to kneel before Cecilia at any moment, and +Henderson and Shallenberger are not asleep." + +"That's all true; and you've got to fix it." + +"You're leaving the fate of Wiggins and your sister in my hands? +That's a heavy responsibility, Hezekiah. I might take care of Wiggy by +asking Cecilia to marry me, being careful to have him appear +johnny-on-the-spot when I had been duly declined." + +"Um, I should n't take any chances if I were you," she replied, +feigning to look at an imaginary bird in a tree-top; "for if you had +counted wrong and were really the seventh man, she would have to accept +you!" + +"Hezekiah!" + +"Oh, I really did n't mean what you thought I meant. We don't need to +discuss it any more. That's the ordeal I've arranged for you," she +answered, and set her lips sternly. + +"But, my dear Hezekiah, by what means can this be effected? I don't +dare tell him the combination he's playing against or sit on him until +his hour strikes." + +"Certainly not; you must n't tell him or anybody else. You know the +plan; but you're not supposed to; and nobody must know I've meddled. +Meanwhile, Cecilia must expose herself to proposals at all times. Aunt +Octavia's heart would be broken if she thought Providence had been +tampered with. She likes Wiggy well enough, except that his ancestors +were all Tories and he can't be a son of the Revolution." + +"Too bad; it was very careless of him not to do better about his +ancestors; but he can't change that now." + +"Well, you've behaved with considerable intelligence so far, and now +with your friend's fate in your hands you will need to use great +judgment and tact in all that follows. I wash my hands of the whole +business." + +She rose quickly and pointed to her coat. + +"Drop it into the boat for me, Chimneys. We meet in funny places, +don't we? Papa expects me for luncheon, and I must row back and get my +bicycle. You? No, you can't go along; you've got a lot of thinking to +do, and you'd better be doing it." + + + + +XVIII + +TROUBLE AT THE PRESCOTT ARMS + +A few minutes later, as I swung along the highway toward the Prescott +Arms, I saw Cecilia Hollister riding toward me at a lively gallop. She +crossed the bridge without checking her horse, and then, with a hurried +glance over her shoulder, she pointed with her crop to a by-way that +led deviously into a strip of forest and vanished. + +I hurried after her, and found her waiting for me in a quiet lane. She +had dismounted and seemed greatly disturbed as I addressed her. Her +horse, a superb Estabrook thoroughbred, had evidently been pushed hard. +Cecilia had taken off her hat, and was giving a touch to the wayward +strands of hair that had been shaken loose in her flight. The color +glowed in her dark cheeks, and her eyes were bright with excitement. + +"I hadn't expected to meet you; I thought you rode off with your aunt +toward Mt. Kisco." + +"We did; but on our way home Aunt Octavia stopped to call on a friend, +and as I did n't feel in a mood for visits this morning I rode on +alone." + +She spoke further of her aunt's friend, of whom I had never heard +before, to calm herself before touching upon the cause of her wild ride +or her wish to speak to me. She pinned on her hat and drew on her +riding-gloves while I helped to make conversation, and soon regained +her composure. The haste with which she had withdrawn into the wood, +and the imperative wave of her crop by which she had bidden me follow +her, indicated that something of importance had happened and that she +wished to confide in me. + +"I was walking my horse in the road beyond Bedford, just after I left +Aunt Octavia, when who should ride up beside me but Mr. Wiggins. He +had evidently been following me." + +She expected me to express surprise; and with the information that +Hezekiah had just imparted fresh in my mind I dare say she was not +disappointed in the effect of her words. I was thinking rapidly and +fearfully. If my friend had sought her in the highway and offered +himself in some fresh accession of ardor, he might even now be a +rejected and hopeless man; but I was unwilling to believe that this had +happened. + +"Hartley is fond of riding, and nothing could be more natural than for +him to have his horse sent out from town." + +"Oh, it's natural enough," she cried; "but I was greatly taken aback +when he rode up beside me." + +"An old friend joining you in the highway, on a bright October morning! +I can't for the life of me see anything surprising or alarming in that, +Miss Hollister." + +"But only yesterday, you remember I told you I had seen him walking +with my sister." + +"It's perfectly easy to talk to Hezekiah! It seems to me that that +only shows a friendly attitude toward all the family. Let us deal with +facts if I am to help you. I understand perfectly that Hartley Wiggins +wishes to marry you; and that being the case I see no reason why he +should n't be courteous to your sister. I 've always heard that it's +the proper thing to be polite to the sisters, cousins, and aunts of +one's prospective wife. I know of no more delightful occupation than +listening to Hezekiah. Just now, for an hour or so, I have been +enjoying her conversation myself. Nothing could be more refreshing or +stimulating. She is an unusual young woman, and most amazingly wise." + +"You have seen Hezekiah this morning!" she exclaimed. + +"I have indeed. I hope I may say that she and I are becoming good +friends. I am learning to understand her; though, believe me, I don't +speak boastingly. However, this morning we got on famously together. +But won't you continue and tell me what happened in the road when +Hartley rode up beside you?" + +"Oh, nothing happened; really nothing! Nothing could have happened, +for the excellent reason that I ran away from him. It was n't what he +did or said; it was the fear of what he might say!" + +"If it had been Mr. Dick who had joined you in exactly the same way in +the highway, you would not have minded in the least, Miss Hollister. +Is n't that the truth?" + +Her hand that had rested on the pommel of her saddle dropped to her +side, and she stood erect, her eyes wide with wonder. + +"What do you mean?" she gasped. + +"I mean exactly what I have said; that if it had been that strutting +young philosopher from the West you would--well, you would have allowed +him to say what was in his mind, no matter whether it had been his +latest thought on Kantianism, the weather, or his admiration for +yourself. Am I not right?" + +"I wonder, I wonder"--she faltered, drawing away, the better to observe +me. + +"You wonder how much I know! To relieve your mind without parleying +further, I will say to you that I know everything." + +"Then Aunt Octavia must have told you; and that seems incredible. It +was distinctly understood"-- + +"Your aunt told me nothing. Not by words did any one tell me." + +"Not by words?" she asked, eyeing me wonderingly and clearly fearing +that I might be playing some trick upon her. "Then can it be that +Hezekiah--but no! Hezekiah does n't know!" + +"Trust Hezekiah for not telling secrets," I answered evasively. "Give +me credit for some imagination. The air of Hopefield is stimulating, +and in the few days I have spent in your aunt's house I have learned +much that I never dreamed of before. I am not at all the person you +greeted with so much courtesy in the library when I arrived there, a +chimney-doctor and an ignorant person, a few afternoons ago,--called, +as I thought, to prescribe for flues that proved to be in admirable +condition, but really summoned by higher powers to assist the fates in +the proper and orderly performance of their duties to several members +of the house of Hollister,--yourself among them." + +"I don't understand it; you are wholly inexplicable." + +"I am the simplest and least guileful of beings, I assure you. Yet I +have done some things here not in the slightest way related to chimney +doctoring; and something else I expect to do for which I believe you +will thank me through all the years of your life." + +"Ah, if you really know, that is possible!" she sighed wearily. "I am +very tired of it all. I was very foolish ever to have agreed to Aunt +Octavia's plan. You have seen those men,--any one of them might, you +know"-- And she shrugged her shoulders impatiently. + +"Any one of them might be the seventh man! There, you see I do know! +And I mean to help you!" + +She was immensely relieved; there was no question of that. Gratitude +shone in her eyes; and then, as I marvelled at their beautiful dark +depths, fear suddenly possessed them. The change in her was startling. +Several motors had swept by in the outer road while we talked; they +were faintly visible through the trees; and just now we both heard a +horse and caught a fleeting glimpse of Hartley Wiggins, riding slowly +with bowed head toward the inn. Cecilia's horse flung up his head, but +she clapped her hands upon his nostrils and held them there to prevent +his whinnying until that figure of despair had passed out of hearing. + +I was smitten with sorrow for Hartley Wiggins. I could put myself in +his place and imagine his feelings as he rode like a defeated general +back to the inn, there to face the other suitors after the humiliating +experience which Cecilia Hollister had just described. In his +ignorance of the cause of her eagerness to escape from him, he no doubt +believed that he had all unconsciously made himself intolerable to her. +It was plain that that glimpse of him had touched Cecilia's pity; if I +had doubted the sincerity of her regard for him before, I spurned the +thought now. I was anxious to requicken hope in her,--an odd office +for me to assume when in my own affairs I had always yielded my sword +readily to the blue devils! Yet during my short stay at Hopefield I +had already found it possible to restore Miss Octavia's confidence in +her own chosen destiny, and in this delicate love-affair between +Cecilia Hollister and my best friend I proffered counsel and sympathy +with an assurance that astonished me. + +"I have told you enough, Miss Hollister, to make it clear that I am in +a position to help you. Believe me, I have no other business before me +but to complete the service I have undertaken." + +"But there is always"--she began, then ceased abruptly, and lifted her +head proudly--"there is always Mr. Wiggins's attitude toward my sister. +Not for anything in the world would I cause her the slightest +unhappiness. You must see that, now that you know her." + +I laughed aloud. Cecilia's concern for Hezekiah's happiness was so +absurd that I could not restrain my mirth for a moment. Displeasure +showed promptly in Cecilia's face. + +"I am sorry if you doubt my sincerity, Mr. Ames. I will put the matter +directly, to make sure I have not been misunderstood heretofore, and +say that if Hezekiah is interested in Hartley Wiggins and cares for him +in the least,--you know she is young and susceptible,--I shall take +care that he never sees me again." + +"Pardon me, but maybe you don't quite understand Hezekiah!" + +"Is it possible, then, that you do?" she inquired coldly. "I imagine +your opportunities for seeing her have not been numerous." + +"Well, it is n't so much a matter of seeing her, when you've read of +her all your life and dreamed about her. She's in every fairy story +that ever was written; she dances through the mythologies of all races. +Hers is the kingdom of the pure in heart. Her mind is like a beautiful +bright meadow by the sea, and her thoughts the dipping of swallow-wings +on lightly swaying grasses." + +Cecilia's manner changed, and she smiled. + +"You seem to have an attack of something; it looks serious. You have +n't known her long enough to find out so much!" + +"Longer than you would believe. She and I sat on the shore together +when Ulysses sailed by; we were among those present at the sack of +Troy; we heard Roland's ivory trumpet at Roncesvalles." + +"Such words from you amaze me. I didn't imagine there was so much +romance in chimneys." + +"They are full of it! Commend me to an open fire, with a flue that +knows its business, and a dream or two! I 've renounced my profession. +I shall hereafter offer myself as adviser to persons in need of +illusions; we 'd all be poets if we dared!" + +I helped her into the saddle, and she looked down at me with amusement +in her eyes. My praise of Hezekiah had pleased her, and I felt, as +when we journeyed together into town, her kindly, human qualities. The +perplexities and embarrassments resulting from her compact with her +aunt had doubtless checked the natural flow of her spirits. She talked +on buoyantly, though I was eager to be off, to avert the catastrophe +that only her flight had prevented and which Wiggins might at any +moment precipitate. She gathered up her reins. + +"You are not coming home for luncheon? Then I shall see you at four. +I hope the hiding-place of the ghost will prove interesting. Aunt +Octavia has built her hopes high, and I may add that she has expressed +the greatest admiration of you to me. On her ride this morning she +declared that great things are in store for you. I hope so, too, Mr. +Ames." + +She gave me her hand and rode away, and before I had reached the +highway she was across the bridge and galloping rapidly homeward. + +The inn was a mile distant, and I set off at a brisk pace, turning over +in my mind various projects for controlling the characters now upon the +stage in such manner that Wiggins should become the seventh man. +Cecilia could not always run away from him without violating the terms +of her aunt's stipulation; and it was unlikely that she would attempt +further to guide or thwart the pointing finger of fate. I relied +little upon any arrangement effected among the suitors to stand +together. Hume had already found a chance to speak. Lord Arrowood had +bitten the dust and turned his face homeward, and Wiggins had been near +the brink only that morning. It was unlikely that any of the active +candidates remaining would stumble upon the key to the situation, which +Hezekiah had given into my keeping. + +It was well on toward two o'clock when I approached the inn. Before +long the suitors would depart for their afternoon call at the Manor, +which was an established event of the day. Just as I was about to +enter the gate I was arrested by an imperious voice calling, and John +Stewart Dick came running toward me. He had evidently been expecting +me, and I paused, thinking him about to renew his attack upon me. To +my surprise he greeted me cordially, even offering his hand. + +"You thought you would come after all. Well, I'm glad you did. I've +decided that there should be peace between us." + +In stature he was the shortest of the suitors, but what he lacked in +height was compensated for by a tremendous dignity. A dark Napoleonic +lock lay across his forehead, and his clear-cut profile otherwise +suggested the Corsican, the resemblance being, I wickedly assumed, one +that the philosopher encouraged. + +"You have several times addressed me, Mr. Ames, in a spirit of +contumely which I have hesitated to punish by the chastisement you +deserve; but I am willing to let bygones be bygones." + +His changed tone put me on guard, but it was impossible for me to take +him seriously. In spite of the fact that he was a vigorous muscular +young fellow who could have threshed me without trouble, I could not +resist the impulse he always roused in me to address him in language +any self-respecting man would resent. + +"Chant the _dies irae_ with considerable _allegro_, Plato, for I am +hungry and would fain pay for food at the adjacent inn." + +"I will overlook the coarseness of your humor," he rejoined haughtily. +"My own time is as valuable as yours. You have sneered at my +attainments as a philosopher; but I will pass that for the present. I +am disposed to treat you magnanimously. You have an excellent opinion +of yourself; you have come here as an intruder upon the rights of those +of us who followed Cecilia Hollister across Europe and home to America; +but in spite of this I waive my rights in your favor. I had intended +to offer myself to Miss Hollister this afternoon, with every hope of +success, but I yield to you. My only request is that you inform me at +once when you have learned her decision." + +He clapped on his cap and folded his arms, clearly satisfied with the +expressions of surprise to which my feelings betrayed me. Could it be +possible that he had guessed the truth, perhaps by deductive processes +of which I was ignorant? Whether he had reasoned from some remark +thrown out by Miss Octavia as to the influence of seven in the affairs +of life and her application of that fateful principle to the choice of +a husband for Cecilia, I could not guess, but assuming that he had +caught that clue, he might readily enough have managed the rest. +Having crossed on the steamer with the suitor host, a man of his +intelligence might readily enough have kept track of the vanquished. +In any case he had hit upon me as a likely victim, and on the plea of +generously waiting till I had tried my luck he hoped to thrust me +forward as the sixth suitor, and immediately thereafter project himself +as the inevitable seventh man. The whole situation was rendered +perilously complex by the knowledge that, unaided, he had possessed +himself of so much dangerous information. I must not, however, allow +him to see what I suspected. + +"My dear professor, there's an ancient warning against the Greeks +bearing gifts. You must give me time to inspect the horse." + +"Are you questioning my good faith?" + +"Be it far from me! I'm a good deal tickled though by your genial +assumption that if I offered myself to this lady I should be declined +with thanks. You have fretted yourself into a state of mind that bodes +ill for American philosophy." + +He was again belligerent. It may have occurred to him that I might +know as much as he, but at any rate he grinned; it was a saturnine grin +I did not like. + +"I'm starving to death at the door of an inn, and you must excuse me. +Have you seen Hartley Wiggins lately?" + +"I have, indeed! He's taken to lonely horseback rides; he's off +somewhere now. He has n't the stamina for a contest like this. One by +one the autumn leaves are falling," he added, with special intention, +"and I have given you your chance." + +"Thanks, light-bringing Socrates from the lands of the Ogalallas! For +so much courtesy I shall take pleasure in reading all your posthumous +works. Let us cease being absurd." + +He laid his hand on my arm and lowered his tone. + +"Don't be an ass. If you and I both know what's underneath all this +mystery we might come to an understanding." + +"I don't follow you. Please make a light, like a man about to have an +idea." + +"You mean that you don't understand?" He eyed me doubtfully, uncertain +whether I knew or not. + +"You have implied that I am incapable of understanding; suppose we let +it go at that." + +With this I left him and entered the low-raftered office--it was really +a pleasant lounging-room, unspoiled by the usual hotel-office +paraphernalia. Dick had followed close behind, and as I paused, +hearing voices raised angrily in the dining-room beyond, I turned to +him for an explanation. As the suitors had been the only guests of the +inn since their advent, having stipulated that the proprietor should +exclude other applicants for meals or lodging, I attributed the +commotion to strife in their own ranks. Dick nodded sullenly and bade +me keep on. + +"You 'd better take a look at those fellows. I 've quit them--quite +out of it; remember that." + +The dining-room door was slightly ajar, and I flung it open. + +Ormsby, Shallenberger, Henderson, Hume, Gorse, and Arbuthnot had been +engaged with cards at a round table in an alcove, but some dispute +having apparently risen, they stood in their places engaged in +acrimonious debate. As near as I could determine, some one of them--I +think it was Ormsby--wished to abandon the game, which had been +undertaken to determine in what order they should be permitted to pay +visits to Hopefield in future, the calls _en masse_ having grown +intolerable. They were so absorbed in their argument that they failed +to note my appearance, and I stood unobserved within the door. The +dialogue between the card-players was swift and hot. + +"It's no good, I tell you!" cried Ormsby. "There's no fairness in this +unless all take their chances together!" + +"You ought to have thought of that before we began. This was your +scheme, but because the cards are running against you, you want to +quit. I say we'll go on!" This from Henderson, who struck the table +sharply as he concluded. + +"You knew Wiggins and Dick were n't going in when we started, and you +are not likely to get them in now. Your anxiety to cut the rest of us +out by any means seems to have unsettled your mind," shouted Gorse. "I +say let's drop this and stand to our original agreement that no man +speak till the end of the fortnight." + +"After that whole scheme has been torn to pieces like paper! There's +been nothing fair in this business from the start! We ought to have +kept Arrowood here and held together. And we ought to have got rid of +that Ames fellow--he did n't belong in this at all; and instead of +protecting ourselves against outsiders we have sat here like a lot of +fools while he's been making himself agreeable there in the +house--right there in the house!" + +Ormsby's voice rose to a disagreeable squeak as he closed with this +indictment of me. Hume fidgeted uneasily, and met my eye so warily +that I wondered whether he suspected that I knew of his breach of faith +with the other suitors. Much dallying with Scandinavian literature had +not lightened his heart, and there was nothing in Ibsen to which he +could refer his present plight. Shallenberger seemed to be the only +one of the group who had not lost his senses. He was in the farther +corner of the alcove, out of sight from the door, but I heard him +distinctly as he addressed the other suitors with rising anger. + +"We're acting like cads, and cads of the most contemptible sort! I +only agreed to this game to satisfy Ormsby. The idea of our sitting +here to draw cards to determine the order in which we shall offer +ourselves to the noblest and most beautiful woman in the world would be +coarse and vulgar if it were not so ridiculous! The men who had their +chance on the steamer or after we came here--and I don't pretend to +know who they are--ought in decency to have left the field. We seem to +have forgotten that we pretend to be gentlemen; or, far less +pardonable, that we pay court to a lady. Damn you all! I refuse to +have anything more to do with you, and if you try to interfere with my +affairs in any way I'll smash your heads collectively or separately as +you prefer!" + +My interest in this colloquy had led me further into the room, and +hearing my step they all turned and faced me. Dick had continued at my +side, but the black looks they sent our way were intended, I thought, +rather for me. Shallenberger, having taken himself out of the tangle, +leaned against the wall and filled his pipe with unconcern. My +appearance roused Ormsby to a fresh outburst. + +"You're responsible! If you had n't forced yourself upon the ladies at +Hopefield there would n't have been any of this trouble!" + +"You're only an impostor anyhow. You went to the house to fix a +chimney, and seem to think you 're engaged to spend the rest of your +natural life there!" protested Henderson, twisting the ends of his +moustache. + +Then they dropped me and assailed Dick. + +"We'd like to know what you expect to gain by dropping out! You got +cold feet mighty sudden!" bellowed Ormsby. + +Gorse and Henderson paid similar tributes to the apostate, whose +melancholy grin only deepened. Shallenberger was pacing the floor +slowly and puffing his pipe. Hume and Arbuthnot growled occasionally, +but shared, I thought, Shallenberger's changed feeling. + +My silence had been effective up to this time, but I was afraid to risk +it longer. Dick, I imagined, had kept close to me for fear of missing +any part of the altercation he knew my appearance would provoke. The +more vociferous suitors had howled themselves hoarse and glared at me +while I considered the situation. Henderson rallied for a final shot. + +"A good horsewhipping is what you deserve," he cried, leveling his +finger at me. + +"Gentlemen," I began, not without inward quaking, "you have spoken loud +naughty words to me, and in reply I must say that your vocal efforts +suggest only the melodies of the braying jackass, and that your +manners, to speak mildly, are susceptible of considerable improvement." + +"You leave this neighborhood within an hour!" boomed Ormsby; and in his +efforts to free himself from his chair it fell backward with a crash +that echoed through the long room. + +"Then summon the coroner by telephone, for I shall not be taken alive," +I answered quietly, trying to recall my youthful delight in Porthos, +Athos, and Aramis. "I should dislike to change the mild color-scheme +of this pleasant dining-room, but as sure as you lay hands on me, these +walls will become a playground for any corpuscles you carry in your +loathsome persons." + +"Come along, let us put him out," Henderson was saying in an aside to +Ormsby. + +"You were playing a game here for a stake not yours for the winning," I +continued. "Now I suggest that you shuffle the pack,--you three, who +are so full of valor,--shuffle the pack, I say, and draw for the jack +of clubs. Whoever is the fortunate man I shall take pleasure in +pitching through yonder very charming casement." + +"Agreed!" cried Henderson, and the three flung themselves into their +chairs. + +The alacrity of their consent had unnerved me for a moment. +D'Artagnan, I was sure, would have fought them all, but I consoled +myself, as the cards rattled on the bare table, with the reflection +that, considering the fact that I had never in my life laid violent +hands on a fellow-being, I was conducting myself with admirable +assurance. My weight has always hung well within one hundred and +thirty, and physicians have told me that I was incapable of taking on +flesh or muscle. Any one of these men could easily toss me through the +window I had indicated as a means of their own exit. + +Shallenberger caught my eye and indicated with a slight jerk of the +head that I had better run before it was too late. The painstaking +care with which Henderson had fallen upon the cards was disquieting, to +put it mildly. Dick nudged me in the ribs and offered to hold my coat. + +"It will not be necessary," I replied carelessly. "Tender your +services to the other gentlemen." + +I felt the cold sweat gathering on my brow. The three had begun to +draw cards, and I heard them slap the bits of pasteboard smartly upon +the table as they lifted them from the deck and, finding the jack of +clubs still undrawn, waited the next turn. I had no idea that a pack +of cards would dissolve so readily by the drawing process, and my +memory ceased trying to recall the adventures of D'Artagnan and hovered +with ominous persistence about the mad don of La Mancha. I cannot say +now whether I stood my ground out of sheer physical inability to run or +from an accession of courage due to the remembrance of my success in +detecting the Hopefield ghost. In any case I affected coolness as I +waited, even throwing out my arms to "shoot" my cuffs once or twice, +and yawning. + +"Come, gentlemen, hurry: let us not waste time here," I exclaimed +impatiently. + +"If Ormsby turns up the card you're a dead man," Dick was muttering +gloomily. + +"They're all alike to me," I replied loudly. "Mr. Ormsby is very +beautiful; I shall hope not to disfigure him permanently;" but as I +spoke my tongue was a wobbly dry clapper in my mouth. + +I was bending over now, watching the three men pick up the cards, and +once, when I misread the jack of spades for the jack of clubs, a +shudder passed over me. They were down to the last card, and Ormsby's +hand was on it. I recall that a group of steins on a shelf over +Henderson's head seemed to be dancing wildly. Then I looked at the +floor to steady myself, and hope leaped within me, for there, by +Ormsby's foot,--a large and heavy one,--lay an upturned card, the jack +of clubs, whose lone symbol magnified itself enormously in my amazed +eyes. + +At this moment, I became conscious that something had occurred to +distract the attention of the other men, who were staring at some one +who had entered noiselessly. + +"Gentlemen, you seem immensely interested in the turn of those cards. +I am glad to have arrived at the critical moment. Mr. Ormsby, will you +kindly lift the remaining card from the table?" + +Miss Octavia stood beside me. She was dressed in a dark brown +riding-habit; the feather in her fedora hat emphasized her usual brisk +air. She swung her riding-crop lightly in her hand, and bent over the +table with the deepest interest. + +Ormsby turned up the card. It was the ten of diamonds. + +"Gentlemen," I cried, pointing to the card, "what trick is this? Can +it be possible that you have been trifling with me in a fashion for +which men have died the world over by sword and pistol!" + +"Kindly explain, Arnold, the nature of this difficulty," Miss Octavia +commanded. + +"Simply this, Miss Hollister, if I must answer; I had offered to fight +these three gentlemen in order. It was agreed that the man who drew +the jack of clubs from the pack with which they had been playing should +be my first victim. They have shuffled their own cards and have drawn +the whole pack and there is no jack of clubs in the pack! The only +possible explanation is one to which I hesitate to apply the obvious +plain Saxon terms." + +"It dropped out, that's all! You don't dare pretend that we threw out +the jack to avoid drawing it!" protested Ormsby, though I saw from the +glances the trio exchanged that they suspected one another. Ormsby and +Gorse bent down to look for the missing card, but before they found it +I stepped forward and drove my fist upon the table with all the power I +could put into the blow. + +"Stop!" I cried. "I gave you every opportunity to stand up and take a +trouncing, but I need hardly say that after this contemptible knavery I +refuse to soil my hands on you!" + +"Do you insinuate"--began Henderson, jumping to his feet. + +"Gentlemen," said Miss Hollister, lifting the riding-crop, "it is +perfectly clear to me that Mr. Ames has gone as far as any gentleman +need go in protecting his honor. I do not offer myself as an +arbitrator here, but I advise my young friend that nothing further is +required of him in this deplorable affair." + +With one sweep of her crop she brushed to the floor the three piles of +cards that lay on the table as they had been stacked when drawn. + +[Illustration: With one sweep of her crop she brushed to the floor the +three piles of cards.] + +"Arnold," she said, with indescribable dignity, "will you kindly attend +me to my horse?" + + + + +XIX + +THE GHOST OF ADONIRAM CALDWELL + +A stable-boy held Miss Octavia's horse at the inn-door. Her face, her +figure, her voice expressed outraged dignity as she tested the +saddle-girth. + +"You need never tell me what had happened to provoke your wrath, for +that is none of my affair; but I wish to say that your conduct and +bearing won my highest approval. They had undoubtedly hidden the jack +of clubs to avoid the drubbing you would have administered to the +unfortunate man who would have drawn that card if it had been in the +pack." + +"I was not in the slightest danger at any time, Miss Hollister," I +protested. "By one of those tricks of fate to which you and I are +becoming so accustomed, the card had fallen to the floor unnoticed. If +you had not arrived so opportunely the lost jack would have been +discovered, the cards reshuffled, and very likely Mr. Ormsby would have +been dusting the inn-floor with me at this very minute." + +"I refuse to believe any such thing," declared Miss Octavia, who had +mounted and continued speaking from the saddle. "Your perfect +confidence was admirable, and I shudder to think of the terrible +punishment you would have given them. I do not particularly dislike +Mr. Ormsby, though the possibility of Cecilia marrying him has troubled +me not a little as I have recalled the unromantic aspect of Utica as +seen from the car-windows; but it is much to your credit that you +defied them all and brought them to the fighting-point, and then, by a +stroke of cleverness it pleased me to witness, placed them +irretrievably in the wrong." + +If Miss Octavia wished to view my performances in this flattering light +it seemed unnecessary and unkind to object. Now that I was in the open +again with a whole skin I was not averse to the victor's crown; I would +even wear it tilted slightly over one ear. Birds have been killed by +shots that missed the real target; bunker sands are rich in gutta +percha and good intentions. I was a fraud, but a cheerful one. + +"It was only a pleasant incident of the day's work, Miss Hollister. +I'm going to engage a squire and take to the open road as soon as all +this is over." + +"As soon as all what is over!" she demanded, eyeing me keenly. + +"Oh, the work I've undertaken to do here. I flatter myself that I have +made some progress; but within twenty-four hours I dare say that we +shall have seen the end." + +"Your words are not wholly luminous, Arnold." + +"It is much better that it should be so. You have trusted me so far, +and I have no intention of failing you now. If I say that the crisis +is near at hand in a certain matter that interests you greatly, you +will understand that I am not striking ignorantly in the dark." + +"If you know what I suspect you know, Arnold Ames, you are even +shrewder than I thought you, and you had already taken a high place in +my regard. The curtains of the windows just behind you have shown +considerable agitation since we have been speaking, not due, I think, +to the wind, as there is no air stirring. Those gentlemen you have +just vanquished are timidly watching you. Your daring and prowess have +greatly alarmed them. You may be sure they will think twice before +provoking your wrath again." + +"I devoutly hope they will," I replied, glancing carelessly over my +shoulder, and catching a glimpse of Henderson as he drew hastily out of +sight. "But will you tell me just how you came to visit the inn at +this particular hour?" + +"Nothing could be simpler. I had luncheon at the house of a friend on +whom I called. Cecilia had left me to continue her ride alone, and on +my way home I thought I would ride by the Prescott Arms to see how the +guests were faring. You see,"--she paused and gave a twitch to her hat +to prolong my suspense,--"you see, I own the Prescott Arms!" + +With this she rode away, and not caring to risk a further meeting with +the angry suitors from whom Miss Octavia had rescued me by so narrow a +margin, I set off across the fields toward Hopefield. From the stile I +saw Miss Octavia in the highway half a mile distant, sending her horse +along at a spirited canter. I reached the house without further +adventures, was served with a cold luncheon in my room, and by the time +I had changed my clothes Miss Octavia sent me word that Pepperton had +arrived. + +Miss Octavia and the architect were conversing earnestly when I reached +the library; and from the abruptness with which they ceased on my +entrance I imagined that I had been the subject of their talk. +Pepperton is not only one of the finest architects America has +produced, but one of the jolliest of fellows. He grasped my hand +cordially and pointed to the fireplace. + +"So you've at last found one of my jobs to overhaul, have you! You +must n't let this get out on me, old man; it would shatter my +reputation!" + +"Please observe that the flue is drawing splendidly now," I answered. +"A ghost had been strolling up and down the chimney, but now that I +have found his lair he will not trouble Miss Hollister's fireplaces +again." + +"I have waited for your arrival, Mr. Pepperton, that we might have the +benefit of your knowledge of the house in following the trail of this +ghost which Arnold has discovered. But we must give Arnold credit for +effecting the discovery alone and unaided. I destroyed the plans I +obtained from your office so that Arnold might be fully tested as to +his capacity for managing the most difficult situations." + +When Miss Octavia first referred to me as Arnold, Pepperton raised his +brows a trifle; the second time he glanced at me laughingly. He seemed +greatly amused by Miss Octavia's seriousness, but her amiable attitude +toward me clearly puzzled him. + +"It takes a good man to uncover a thing I try to hide. I said nothing +to you, Miss Hollister, about the retention within the walls of this +house of parts of an old one that formerly occupied the site, for the +reason that I thought you might refuse to buy the estate. The +gentleman for whom I built Hopefield was superstitious, as many men of +advanced years are, as to the building of a new house, and as the site +he chose is one of the finest in the county he compelled me to +construct this house--which is the most satisfactory I have built--in +such manner enough of the old should be kept intact to soothe his +superstitious soul with the idea that he had merely altered an old +house, not built a new one. As it is the architect's business to yield +to such caprices I obeyed him strictly. So there are two rooms of an +old farmhouse hidden under the east wing, and it amused me, once I had +got into it, to preserve part of the old stairway, and connect the +retained chambers with the upper hall of this house. I had to patch +the original stair, which was only one flight, with discarded lumber +from the old house, but I flatter myself that I managed it neatly. I +even saved the old nails to avert the wrath of the evil spirits. When +the umbrella and dyspepsia-cure man died,--for he did die, as you +know,--I believed the secret had died with him, as he was very +sensitive about his superstitions. Most of the laborers on that part +of the job were brought from a long distance, and I supposed they never +really knew just what we were doing. I might have known, though, that +if a fellow as clever as Ames got to pecking at the house the trick +would be discovered. But the chimney, old man,--what on earth was the +matter with it?" + +"It will never happen again, and I promised the ghost never to tell how +it was done." + +"You were quite right in doing that, Arnold,--a ghost's secrets should +be sacred; but let us now proceed to the hidden chambers," said Miss +Hollister, rising without further ado. + +She summoned Cecilia, to whom we explained matters briefly, and at +Pepperton's suggestion the four of us went directly to the fourth +floor, so that Miss Octavia might see the whole contrivance in the most +effective manner possible. + +My awkward pen falters in the attempt to convey any idea of Miss +Octavia's delight in Pepperton's revelation; she kept repeating her +admiration of his genius, and her praise of my cleverness, which, to +protect Hezekiah, I was forced to accept meekly. When in broad +daylight Pepperton found and pressed the spring in the upper hall and +the hidden door opened, with a slowness that indicated a realization of +its own dramatic value, Miss Octavia cried out gleefully, like a child +that witnesses the manipulation of a new and wonderful toy. + +"To think, Cecilia, that I should never have known of this if that +chimney had not smoked!"--a remark that caused Pepperton to glance at +me curiously. He knew as well as I did that with ordinary care every +flue in that house would have drawn splendidly. "Beyond any question," +Miss Octavia kept asserting, "beneath the chambers of the old house +down there we shall find the bones of that British soldier who perished +here; or it is even possible that a chest of hidden treasure is +concealed beneath the floor. What do you yourself suspect, Mr. +Pepperton?" + +We were lighting candles preparatory to stepping down into the dark +stairway, and Pepperton was plainly hard put to keep from laughing. + +"I assure you, Miss Hollister, that I have told you all I know about +the rooms down there. I 'm not very strong in the ghost-faith; and our +friend the umbrella-man never dreamed of such a thing, I assure you, +not even after he had satisfied his fierce craving for pie." + +Miss Octavia followed Pepperton slowly, pausing frequently to hold her +candle close to the stair-walls, whose rough surfaces confirmed all +that Pepperton had said of the preservation of the old timbers. I had +brought a handful of candles, and when we had reached the dark rooms +beneath, I lighted these and set them up in the black corners of the +old rooms, in which, Miss Octavia remarked, not even the wall paper had +been disturbed. The exit into the coal-cellar, and concealed openings +left for ventilation which had escaped me before, were now pointed out +by the architect, who kept laughing at the huge joke of it all. + +Cecilia murmured her surprise repeatedly as we continued the +examination; nothing quite like this had ever happened in the world +before, but even as we walked through those hidden rooms my thoughts +reverted to the crisis so near at hand in her affairs. I had pledged +myself to her service, but I saw no way yet of assuring the proper +sequence of proposals. The ultimate seventh must be Wiggins; but how +could I manage the penultimate sixth! Cecilia's own apparent freedom +from care on this tour of inspection deepened my sense of +responsibility to all concerned. Dick might by now have persuaded some +one of the others at the inn to offer himself, thus closing the gap, +and I had determined that the Westerner should not outwit me. It was +some consolation to know that while Cecilia was in these lost rooms in +my company, she was safe from Dick's machinations. + +My thoughts were, however, given a new direction by Miss Octavia. She +had been scrutinizing the floor closely, asking us all to bring our +candles to bear upon it, that she might search thoroughly for any signs +of a trapdoor beneath which the bones of the British soldier might +repose. + +"You can't tell me," she averred in her own peculiar vein, "that a +house as old as this has been preserved merely to divert calamity from +a superstitious gentleman engaged in the manufacture of ribless +umbrellas and a dyspepsia cure." + +Miss Octavia Hollister was a woman to be humored; we all knew this; but +I realized with a pang that she was about to be disappointed. I had +expected her to forget the British soldier in the perfectly tangible +joy of secret springs and ghostly chambers; and if I had foreseen her +persistence in clinging to the tradition of the ill-fated Briton I +should have taken the trouble to hide a few bones under the flooring. +Miss Octavia had brought a stick from the coal-room, and was thumping +the floor with it even while Pepperton tried to discourage her further +investigations. We were all ranged about her with our candles, and +these, with the others I had thrust into the corners, lighted the room +well. + +"I'm afraid you've seen the whole of it, Miss Hollister," said +Pepperton. "The old house was built after the Revolution, I judge, but +your British soldier was probably left hanging to a tree and never +buried at all." + +"Mr. Pepperton," she replied, holding the candle so close to the +architect that he blinked, "it would be far from me to question your +knowledge of history, but I should not be at all surprised if the +builder of this old house had fought on the seas with John Paul Jones, +and had buried beneath these walls the very sea-chest that had been his +companion on many eventful voyages." + +Pepperton gasped at the absurdity of this, and then suppressed his +mirth with difficulty. Cecilia faintly expostulated; but I knew Miss +Octavia would not be dissuaded, and I thought it as well to facilitate +her search and be done with it. A sailor with rings in his ears and a +cutlass dangling at his side might have come home from the wars and +established himself on a farm in Westchester County and even buried his +sea-chest under the floor of his house, but in all likelihood he never +had. It was not my office, however, to advise Miss Octavia Hollister +in such matters. Pepperton had changed his tune and seemed anxious to +follow my lead. To him she was an eccentric old woman, whose wealth +alone gained her indulgence in such preposterous obsessions as this; +but my own feelings were those of regret that she must so quickly be +disillusioned. To me she had become an incarnation of the play-spirit +that never grows old, and there may have risen in me an honest belief +that what this unusual woman sought she would somehow find. Once or +twice when the uneven worn flooring had boomed hollowly under her stick +I had knelt promptly to examine the planks, and had thus disposed of +several false alarms. Pepperton feigned interest for a time, but was +becoming bored. Cecilia studied the quaint pattern of the wall paper, +which she said ought to be reproduced, as nothing in contemporaneous +designs equaled it. + +Miss Octavia had been over the floors of the two rooms twice, and was +about to desist. Her less frequent appeals to the rest of us for +confirmation of some suspected change in the responses to her thumping +indicated disappointment. She made her last stand in the corner of the +smaller room, and as we all stood holding our lights, we were conscious +that the dull monotonous thump suddenly changed its tone. We all +noticed it at the same instant, and exchanged glances of surprise. + +"Do you hear that, gentlemen?" + +She subdued her gratification in the rebuking glance she gave us. Calm +and unhurried, she rested a moment on her stick, with the candle's soft +glow about her, a smile ineffably sweet on her face. + +"The timbers may have rotted away underneath. We did n't raise these +floors," said Pepperton; but we both dropped to our knees and brought +all the candle-light to bear upon the flooring. Dust and mortar, +shaken loose in the destruction of the house, filled the cracks. +Pepperton, deeply absorbed, continued to sound the corner with his +knuckles. + +"It really looks as though these boards had been cut for some purpose," +he said, whipping out his knife. + +I ran to the kindling-room and found a hatchet, and when I returned he +had dug the dirt out of the edges of the floor-planks. Silence held us +all as I set to prying up the boards. + +"I beg of you to exercise the greatest care, gentlemen. If bones are +interred here we must do them no sacrilege," warned Miss Octavia. + +By this time we all, I think, began to believe that the flooring might +really have been cut in this corner of the old room to permit the +hiding of something. The room had grown hot, and Cecilia opened the +cellar-windows outside to admit air. The old planks clung stubbornly +their joists, but after I had loosened one, the others came up quickly +and the smell of dry earth filled the room. Pepperton had, at Miss +Octavia's direction, brought a chisel and crowbar from the tool-room in +the cellar, and he stood ready with these when I tore up the last +board, disclosing an oblong space about five feet long and slightly +over three feet wide. It was possible that this was the whole story, +but Pepperton began driving the bar vigorously into the close-packed +soil. As he loosened the earth I scooped it out, and we soon had +penetrated about six inches beneath the surface. + +We were all excited now. The edge of the bar struck repeatedly against +something that resisted sharply. It might have been a root, but when +Pepperton shifted the point of attack the same booming sound answered +to the prodding. Pepperton now thought it might be only an empty cask +or a box of no interest whatever; but Miss Octavia, hovering close with +a candle, encouraged us to go on, and was fertile in suggestions as to +the most expeditious manner of resurrecting whatever might be buried +there. We were pretty well satisfied from the soundings that the +hidden object was somewhat shorter and narrower than the hole itself. + +"Quite naturally so," observed Miss Octavia, "for a man who buries a +treasure has to allow himself room for getting at it." + +We worked on silently, Pepperton loosening the soil with the bar while +I shoveled it out. In half an hour we had revealed a long flat wooden +surface, which to our anxious imaginations was the lid of some sort of +box. + +"It's sound red cedar," pronounced Pepperton, examining the wood where +the tools had splintered it. + +"Of course it's cedar," replied Miss Octavia, bending down to it. "I +knew it would be cedar. It always is!" + +We paused to laugh at her confident tone, and Cecilia suggested that as +there was still a good deal to do before we could free the box, we +should send for some of the servants to complete the work. + +"I would n't take a thousand dollars for my chance at this," Pepperton +answered; and we fell to again. + +It must have been nearly six o'clock when we dragged out into that +candle-lighted chamber a stout, well-fashioned box. The earth clung to +its sides jealously, and it was bound with strips of brass that shone +brightly where the scraping of our tools had burnished it. We pried +off the heavy lock with a good deal of difficulty, and when it was free +Miss Octavia asserted her right to the treasure-trove with much +calmness. + +"I should never forgive myself if I allowed this opportunity to pass; +you must permit me to have the first look." + +"Certainly, Miss Hollister; if it had n't been for you this chest would +have remained hidden to the end of all time," Pepperton replied. + +We gathered close about her as she knelt beside the box. My hand shook +as I held my candle, and I think Miss Octavia was the only one in the +room who showed no nervousness. Cecilia sighed deeply several times, +and Pepperton mopped his face with his handkerchief. The lid did not +yield as readily as we had expected, and it was necessary to resort to +the hatchet and chisel again; but we were careful that it should be +Miss Octavia's hand that finally raised the lid. + +We all exclaimed in various keys as the light fell upon the open chest. +The musty odor of old garments greeted us at once. The box was well +filled, and its contents were neatly arranged. Miss Octavia first +lifted out the remnants of a military uniform that lay on top. + +[Illustration: Miss Octavia first lifted out the remnants of a military +uniform that lay on top.] + +"It's his ragged regimentals!" cried Cecilia, as we unfolded an +officer's coat of blue and buff, sadly decrepit and faded; "and he was +not a British soldier at all, but an American patriot." + +Time and service had dealt even more harshly with an American flag on +which the thirteen white stars floated dimly on the dull blue field. +It had been bound tightly about a packet of papers which Miss Octavia +asked Pepperton to examine. + +"These are commissions appointing a certain Adoniram Caldwell to +various positions in the Continental Army. Adoniram had the right +stuff in him; here he's discharged as a private to become an ensign; +rose from ensign to colonel, and seems to have been in most of the big +doings. 'For gallantry in the recent engagement at Stony Point, on +recommendation of General Anthony Wayne'--by Jove, that does rather +carry you back!" + +Half a dozen of these documents traced Adoniram Caldwell's career to +the end of the Revolution and his retirement from the military service +with the rank of colonel. A sealed letter attached to these +commissions next held our attention. The ends were dovetailed in the +old style before the day of envelopes, and evidently care had been +taken in folding and sealing it. The superscription, in a round bold +hand, without flourishes, read: "To Whom It May Concern." + +"I suppose it concerns us as much as anybody," remarked Miss Octavia. +"What do you say, gentlemen; shall we open it?" + +We all demanded breathlessly that she break the seal, and we were soon +bending over her with our lights. The ink had blurred and in spots +rust had obliterated the writing:-- + + +"I, Roger Hartley Wiggins, sometime known as Adoniram Caldwell"-- + + +"Hartley Wiggins!" we gasped; and I felt Cecilia's hand clasp my arm. + +Miss Octavia continued reading, and as she was obliged to pause often +and refer illegible lines to the rest of us, I have copied the +following from the letter itself, with only slight changes of +punctuation and spelling. + + +"I, Roger Hartley Wiggins, sometime known as Adoniram Caldwell, having +now resumed my proper name, and being about to marry, and having begun +the construction of a habitation for myself wherein to end my days, +truthfully set forth these matters: + +"My father, Hiram Wiggins of Rhode Island, having supported the +royalist cause in our late war for Independence, and angered by my +friendliness to the patriots, and he, with ... brothers and sister +having returned to England after the evacuation of Boston, I joined the +Continental troops under General Putnam on Long Island, in July, 1776, +serving in various commands thereafter, to the best of my ability, to +the end.... My father has now returned to Rhode Island, and has, I +learn, been making inquiries touching my whereabouts and condition, so +that I have every hope that we may become reconciled. Yet as my +services to the Country were against his wishes and caused so much +harshness and heartache, and being now come into a part of the country +where I am unknown, I am decided to resume my rightful name, that my +wife and children may bear it and in the hope that I may myself yet add +to it some honor.... + +"Nor shall my wife or any children that may be born to me, know from me +... (_badly blurred_.) Yet not caring to destroy my sword, which I +bore with some credit, nor these testimonials of respect and confidence +I received as Adoniram Caldwell at various times and from various +personages of renown, both civilians and in the military service, I +place them under my house now building, where I hope in God's care to +end my days in peace. I would in like case make like choice again." + + +Ten lines following this were wholly illegible, but just before the +date (June 17, 1789), and the signature, which was written large, was +this:-- + + +"God preserve these American states that they endure in unity and +concord forever!" + + +We had all been moved by the reading of this long-lost letter, and Miss +Octavia's voice had faltered several times. As I turned to Cecilia +once or twice during the recital of the dead patriot's message, I saw +tears brimming her eyes. + +"Mr. Wiggins once told me that his great-grandfather had lived +somewhere in Westchester County, but I fancy he had no idea that +Hopefield was the identical spot," remarked Miss Octavia. "It seems +incredible, and yet I dare say the hand of fate is in it." + +"Oh, it's so wonderful; so beyond belief!" cried Cecilia, reverently +folding the letter, which, I observed, she retained in her own hands. + +"It's wonderful," added Miss Octavia promptly, taking the sword, which +Pepperton had with difficulty drawn from its battered scabbard, "that +even a discerning woman like me could have been so mistaken. I recall +with humility that last Fourth of July, at Berlin, I reprimanded Mr. +Wiggins severely because his family had not been represented in the war +for American Independence. By the irony of circumstances it becomes my +duty to present to him the very sword that his admirable +great-grandfather bore in that momentous struggle. I shall, with his +permission, place a bronze tablet on the outer wall of this house to +preserve the patriot's memory." + +Several copies of New York newspapers, half a dozen French gold coins, +the miniature of a woman's face, which we assumed to be that of Roger +Wiggins's mother or sister, were briefly examined; then by Miss +Octavia's orders we carefully returned everything to the chest. +Several packets of letters we did not open. + +"Arnold," she said when we had closed the chest, "will you and Mr. +Pepperton kindly carry that box to my room? No servant's hand shall +touch it; and I shall myself give it to Mr. Wiggins at the earliest +opportunity." + +We had lost track of time in those hidden rooms, preserved by the whim +of one man that the secret of another might be discovered, and found +with surprise, after the chest had been carried to Miss Octavia's +apartments, that it was after seven o'clock. We had been in the hidden +rooms for more than three hours. + +"We shall have much to talk about to-night, and I fancy we are all a +good deal shaken. It's not often we receive a letter from a dead man, +so we shall admit no callers to-night unless, indeed, Mr. Wiggins +should chance to come," announced Miss Octavia. "The next time Hartley +Wiggins visits this house he shall come as a conquering hero." + +"I hope so," replied Cecilia brokenly. + +We were still at dinner when the cards of Dick and the other suitors I +had last seen at the Prescott Arms were brought in; but Wiggins made no +sign, and I wondered. + + + + +XX + +HEZEKIAH PARTITIONS THE KINGDOM + +The man who looked after my needs handed me a note the next morning +which added fresh hazards to Cecilia's already perilous plight. + +"Left with the gardener before six o'clock by a boy from the village. +Said it was most confidential, sir." + +I waited till he had left the room before opening it. A square white +envelope addressed to Arnold Ames, Esq., Hopefield Manor, told me +nothing, and the handwriting was inscrutable. It slanted slightly +upward; the small letters were half-printed and quaintly shaded. If a +woman's, she had scorned the rail-fence models of the boarding-schools; +if a man's--but I knew its gender well enough! The white note sheet +within was unadorned, and the same pen had traced compactly, within the +widest possible margins, the following:-- + + +GOOSEBERRY BUNGALOW, + Before Breakfast. + +DEAR CHIMNEYS:--Pep stopped here yesterday to see B.H. He and C. old +pals. Watch him. Where's Wig? H.H. + + +The initials were superfluous, and yet the sight of them pleased me +mightily. In her semi-printing she curved the pillars of the H's like +parentheses, so that they bore an amusing resemblance to four men +striding forward against a storm. The report of a chief of scouts +smuggled through the enemy's lines could not have improved on her +billet for succinctness, and the information conveyed was startling +enough. We had been dealing with a company of suitors outside the +barricade; now came warning of the presence of a strange knight within +the gates who greatly multiplied the perils of the situation. The +compact between the suitors at the inn was a thing of the past, and I +now expected them to exercise all the ingenuity of which desperate +lovers are capable in pressing their claims. The fact that both +Wiggins and Pepperton were old friends of mine did not make my task +easier. I not only felt it incumbent on me to prevent Dick, the holder +of the clue, from taking advantage of it, but knowing Cecilia's own +attitude of mind and heart toward Wiggins I wished to save Pepperton +the pain of rejection if it could be done. + +But what did Hezekiah mean by the question with which she ended her +note? If Wiggins, smarting under Cecilia's treatment of him the day +before, had quit the field, here was a pretty how-d 'ye-do f Miss +Octavia's refusal to countenance telephones made it necessary for me to +leave Hopefield to learn what had become of Wiggins, and I realized +that I must act promptly if I saved the day for him. His conduct first +and last had been spiritless, and I was out of patience with him. It +seemed impossible to formulate any plan amidst these multiplying +uncertainties. If Wiggins had decamped, Dick knew it and would lay his +plans accordingly. I felt that it was base ingratitude on Wiggins's +part to ask me to watch his interests while he went roaming +indifferently over the country. One or two consoling reflections +remained, however: Dick believed me to be a suitor for Cecilia's hand, +and this doubtless caused him considerable uneasiness; and he did not +know that Pepperton, whose acquaintance with Cecilia antedated the +European flight, had to be reckoned with. I wished Pepperton had kept +out of it. + +Breakfast that morning was interminably long. Miss Octavia was never +more thoroughly amusing, never more drolly inadvertent. She attacked +Pepperton for all the evils in American architecture, and in particular +took him to task for some house he had built at Newport which she +pronounced the most hideous pile of marble on American soil. From her +packet of newspaper-cuttings she drew a letter her brother Bassford had +written to the "Sun,"--the writing of letters to newspapers was, it +seemed, one of his weaknesses,--protesting against the quality of the +music ground from the New York hurdy-gurdies. The selections were +execrable; the fierce tempo at which the instruments were driven had +caused an alarming increase in insanity, in proof of which he adduced +statistics. He demanded municipal censorship, and volunteered to sit +on the proposed commission of critics without pay. + +"That is just like brother Bassford! When I begin speaking to him +again I shall point out the error of his ways. I always miss the +hurdy-gurdies when I 'm in the country, and I believe I shall buy one +and have it play me to sleep at night. The faster the tempo the +sweeter the slumber. I should certainly do so," she concluded, with +that indefinable smile that always left one wondering, "if it were not +that my new laundress is a graduate of the Sandusky-Ottumwa +Conservatory of Music, and I fear the toreador's song on wheels might +be painful to one of her taste and temperament." + +When we left the table at about half-past ten Miss Octavia insisted +that we must visit the kennels. A friend had just sent her a fine +Airedale, and she wished to make sure the kennel-master was treating +the dog properly. Later we were all to ride. + +I made haste to excuse myself, saying that personal matters required +attention. + +"Certainly, Arnold, you shall do as you like. Mr. Pepperton is a +difficult bird to catch, so we hope for you at luncheon, and of course +we expect you for dinner." + +Pepperton looked at me inquiringly. I judged that he had known Miss +Octavia a good many years; the tone of their intercourse was intimate; +and yet he plainly was at a loss to understand just how I came to be so +thoroughly established in her good graces. I confess that as I glance +back over these pages it looks odd to me! + +As I paced the hall waiting for a horse to be saddled, Pepperton led me +out on the terrace above the garden. + +"I'm bursting with a great secret, old man. I'm going to be married." + +"What!" + +"I'm going to be married." + +I grasped a chair to support myself. This was almost too much. Could +it be possible that Hezekiah had miscalculated the list of rejections +in the silver-bound book, or that Cecilia herself had been deceived? +Pepperton misread my agitation, and with a hearty laugh clapped me on +the shoulder. + +"Oh, I'm not intruding on your preserves, old man! Cecilia is the +second finest girl in the world, that's all. I'm engaged to Miss +Gaylord, of Stockbridge. I 'm telling a few old friends, in advance of +the formal announcement to be made next week at a dance the Gaylords +are giving." + +I crushed his hand in both my own, and seeing that he misconstrued the +fervor of my emotion I hastened to set myself right. + +"You're a lucky dog as usual, Pep. But you don't understand about +Cecilia Hollister. It's not I; I 'm not in the running at all; but +Hartley Wiggins is! I'm here trying to help him score." + +"What's this? You're here to represent Wiggy?" + +"Well, he did n't exactly send me here, but when I came I found that +Wiggy was n't playing the game with quite the necessary zipology. +There's more required than appears,--a little of the dash and snap of +the old adventures,--the ready tongue, the eager, thirsty sword!" + +Pepperton pursed his lips and looked me over carefully with a twinkle +in his eye. + +"You are contributing those elements! You are octaviaized, is that +it?" Pepperton laughed until the tears came. + +"I prefer hollisterized as the broader term. Brother Bassford has it +too, and there's always Hezekiah!" + +"Ah! Hezekiah the unpredictable! I knew there was a skirt fluttering +somewhere. I saw her yesterday; stopped to see Bassford, who's a good +old chap. Hezekiah of the teasing eyes was whitewashing the +chicken-coop, and Michael Angelo could n't have done it better." + +"Pep," I said, lowering my voice, "if you love me, keep close to +Cecilia all day. You're an engaged man and in practice. Give an +imitation of devotion. Keep her out of doors; keep male human beings +away from her. Don't fail me in this. I 've got to pull off the +greatest coup of my life to-day. There's a band of outlaws hanging +round here who will propose to Cecilia the first chance they get--and +they must NOT. Wig 's got to speak before night or lose out forever. +No; not a word of explanation; you've got to take my word for it." + +"I'll be the goat; go ahead, but build a fire under Wiggins; I can't +stay here forever." + +Pepperton's engagement smoothed out one wrinkle, and I felt sure that I +could trust him as an ally. The groom was holding my horse in the +porte-cochere, and I mounted and rode away to the Prescott Arms. + +I found Ormsby, Shallenberger, Arbuthnot, Henderson, Hume, and Gorse +glumly sitting in a semicircle before the hall fireplace. Deepest +gloom pervaded the inn. I have rarely seen melancholy so darkly +stamped upon the human countenance. They turned indifferently and +glared as they recognized me. Shallenberger alone rose and greeted me. + +"I hope there is no bad news," he said chokingly. + +"Bad news?" + +"I mean Miss Hollister--Miss Cecilia. We were all deeply grieved last +night to hear of her sudden illness; there's always something so +terrible in the very name of diphtheria." + +My wits had been so sharpened by my late adventures that I readily +accounted for these false tidings. Dick was absent; Dick alone would +have been equal to this diabolical plot for keeping his rival suitors +away from Hopefield. The despair in those faces taxed my gravity +severely. + +"It is extremely sad, but the first diagnosis was erroneous," I +answered. "I think it more likely to prove to be chicken-pox when the +truth is known." + +"Not diphtheria?" + +"No immediate danger of diphtheria, I assure you," I replied; "though +of course, with winter coming on and all that, one must be prepared for +the worst." + +While he repeated this to the others, I sought the clerk, who promptly +handed me a note which Wiggins had left late the previous afternoon, to +be delivered in case I called. He had gone to spend a day or two with +Orton, the playwright, who was at his country house, in the hills +beyond Mt. Kisco, rehearsing a new piece, in which a friend of +Hartley's was to star. I gained the telephone-booth in one jump, and +in five minutes I was bawling wildly into Orton's ear. I had known him +well in the Hare and Tortoise, and he answered my demand for Wiggins +with the heart-breaking news that Hartley had ridden off with some +other guests in the house--Orton did n't know where. + +"I threw them out; I've got to rewrite my third act; I don't care +whether they ever come back," boomed Orton's voice. + +"If you don't send Wiggins back to me at Hopefield as fast as he can +get there, my third act is ruined." + +"What?" + +"Tell Wiggins to come back on the run; tell him the world's coming to +an end any minute." + +"I'll be glad to get rid of him," snapped Orton, in the harried tone of +a man whose third act has wilted in rehearsal. + +As I came perspiring out of the telephone-booth I found the suitors +engaged in eager but subdued debate by the hearth. They could hardly +have heard my bleatings over the telephone, but they were greatly +concerned about something. Shallenberger, who was apparently the only +one willing to approach me, followed me to the veranda. + +"Those fellows in there don't understand this. Dick told us all last +night, after we had called at the house and been refused admittance, +that Miss Cecilia was ill with diphtheria. I remember that it was Dick +who rang the bell and gave our cards to the footman. It was quite +singular, you know, our being turned away, unless something had been +wrong." + +I bowed gravely. They had been turned away for the very simple reason +that, after unearthing Adoniram Caldwell's effects in the secret rooms +of her house, Miss Octavia had not cared to be troubled with suitors. +The haughty Nebraskan had drawn upon his imagination for the rest. + +"And I understood you to say a moment ago that Miss Hollister's malady +is not diphtheria, but chicken-pox?" Shallenberger persisted with +almost laughable trepidation. "These gentlemen, I regret to say, go so +far as to doubt your word." + +"That, Mr. Shallenberger, is their privilege. But it seems to me that +when I merely tried to mitigate the terrible news imparted by Dick, you +are rank ingrates for questioning my far less doubtful story. Anything +between you gentlemen and Mr. Dick is, of course, none of my affair, +for whether considered as a set, group or bunch I am done with the +whole lot of you. Farewell!" + +I decided as I rode away that nothing was to be gained by going in +search of Wiggins. Orton had purposely made his house difficult of +access, and the roads in that neighborhood are many and devious. Orton +had banished his guests that he might tinker his play in peace, and +knowing his temper, I was sure that Wiggins and the rest of them would +keep out of his way till the pangs of hunger drove them back. + +I had ridden half a mile toward Hopefield, when I espied a woman riding +rapidly toward me, and as she drew nearer I identified her as Hezekiah, +mounted on a horse I recognized as one of the best in Miss Octavia's +stables. Hezekiah rode astride, as a woman should, her bicycle skirt +serving well as a habit. She rode as a boy rides who loves freedom and +quickened pulses and the rush of wind across his face. She was +hatless, for which the sun and I were both grateful. The big bow at +the back of her head turned the dial back to sixteen. + +[Illustration: I espied a woman riding rapidly toward me.] + +She drew rein and fished what seemed to be salted almonds from her +sweater pocket. She filliped one of these into the air, and caught it +in her mouth with a lazy toss of the head that showed the firm contour +of her lovely throat. I had never seen her more self-possessed. + +"Do you care much for this horse?" she asked, carelessly. + +"It's a good horse; I fancy Miss Octavia thinks so herself. There are +places, Hezekiah, where they hang people for horse-stealing." + +"Thought I might need one to-day, so I borrowed him,--through the back +way to the old red barn. The coachman is an ancient chum, and Aunt +Octavia would never mind even if she knew. And she will know all +right! Anyhow, my rear tire had been patched once too often, and there +is a satisfaction in a horse! Where's our sensitive and impressionable +Wiggy? Saw him riding over toward Kisco yesterday P.M. with chin on +his chest,--dreadful riding form." + +"Wiggins is at Orton's,--the playwright's, you know. I've telephoned +him to hustle back, but he's out of our reach somewhere. I could n't +speak to him direct; had to leave a message for him." + +"Just like Wiggy to die on the last lap. What did you make out of +brother Pepperton?" + +"Your note scared me,--thanks so much for your note,--but he's all +right. Engaged to another girl." + +"Ah," she sighed, "it's comforting that Cecilia could n't keep them all +going all the time." + +We rode along together, our horses in a walk, and I told her everything +I knew of the condition of affairs, including a true account of my +experiences at the inn the day before and of the finding of the old +chest belonging to Wiggins's great-grandfather,--her brown eyes opened +wide at this,--concluding with the diphtheria stratagem and Dick's +menace to Cecilia's happiness. + +"He's really a bright little boy. Coming home on the steamer he gave +me a post-graduate course in pragmatism that I've found helpful in +keeping house for papa. It's too bad we have to lay a trap for Mr. +Dick." + +"Is it? Just how are we to manage that, Hezekiah?" + +"Oh, that will be easy enough. He's pretty desperate, and since the +compact between the suitors has gone to pieces he knows he will have to +show his hand pretty soon. He thinks you are wild about Cecilia. He +lays great stress on his thinking powers, and he probably argues that +you are bound to pop pretty soon. It's just as well he thinks so, but +we must finish this up to-day; I'll be a nervous wreck if we don't +close the books to-night. There's your friend Dick now." + +She indicated a high point in the main road, where it crossed the ridge +from which she had shown me--it seemed, oh, very long ago!--the +procession of suitors crossing the stile. Dick, mounted, was gazing +off across the fields toward Hopefield. Man and horse were so distant +as to create the illusion of an equestrian statue on a high pedestal. + +"Napoleon before Waterloo," I suggested. + +"He does look like Napoleon, doesn't he?" she laughed. "He's a bit +fussed to-day. He knows that Wiggy 's not at the inn, and that you are +up to something, and to little Mr. Dick the architect probably looks +like one of those mysterious knights you read about, who suddenly +appears at the tournament all canned in an ice-cream freezer, with a +tin pail over his head. Mr. Pepperton's presence no doubt worries him, +as I don't think they ever met. Cecilia and Mr. Pepperton are +riding--I dodged them just before I struck you, walking their horses in +the most loverlike fashion in a lane over yonder; but if Mr. Pepperton +is really engaged it's all right, though if I were the other girl I +think I'd be anxious." + +"Pep's playing the game, that's all. What are you going to do now?" + +She glanced at the sun; I fancy that it was with such a scanning of the +heavens that her sisters a thousand years before had noted the time. + +"This is my pie-day. There's undoubtedly a gooseberry-pie waiting for +me at the bungalow, and papa will expect me for luncheon. I 'd ask you +to come too, only you 'll have all you can do to keep Mr. Dick from +persuading somebody to be the sixth man, so he can slip in as number +seven. If we get through to-day all right, you may come for luncheon +to-morrow, maybe. Papa told me he liked you; he said you were very +decent that night you met him on the roof of Aunt Octavia's house." + +"My compliments to your father. I hope to be able to persuade him to +extend his paternal arm to include me. Aunt Octavia must be my aunt, +too!" + +"Really!" cried Hezekiah, with indescribable mockery; and she wheeled +her horse and was gone like the wind. + +Luncheon at Hopefield passed without incident; and afterward Cecilia +retired to help her aunt with her correspondence, while Pepperton and I +lounged about the house and smoked. I told him of my ineffectual +efforts to reach Wiggins, and he volunteered to find a motor and search +for him; but I pointed out the futility of this, and renewed my appeal +that he stay on guard at Hopefield. + +At about three o'clock Cecilia reappeared. Her color was high and her +eyes were unusually brilliant. I knew that she fully realized that the +crisis was near, but she asked no questions and her manner reassured me +of her confidence. We idled on the stone terrace above the +frost-smitten garden, which in its ruin still satisfied the eye with +color. I had purposely drawn some chairs to a corner well screened by +vines, so that I could note the approach of any visitors who came cross +country by way of the stile. + +We were hardly seated before Dick entered the garden, followed +immediately by the six other suitors I had last seen at the inn. They +ranged themselves on a stone bench facing the house at the end of one +of the paths. They wore sack coats and hats in a variety of styles, so +that they did not present quite the bizarre effect produced by their +frock coats and silk tiles. They surveyed the house sadly, bowed their +heads upon their sticks, and seemed to have come to stay. The siege, +then, had become a practical matter! + +"Why don't the gentlemen come in?" asked Cecilia, peering through the +vines. + +"Hush! There's a rumor that you are terribly ill; they've come merely +to pay their tribute of respect by waiting in the garden. You had +better go quietly into the house. The shock of seeing you in your +usual health might be too much for them." + +"But I can't! I must be accessible at all times," she cried, looking +helplessly from me to Pepperton, who was all at sea for an explanation. +"If that impression is abroad, I shall appear at once." + +"Then you and Pepperton must patrol the terrace here; you are lovers +for all I know. Ignore them utterly in your absorption with one +another. If any one approaches you, Pepperton, ask Miss Hollister to +marry you." + +"Me!" gasped Pepperton. + +"No; it can't be done that way," Cecilia interposed. "Mr. Pepperton +has told me of his engagement. I can't be party to a fraud, a trick. +I can't countenance it at all. It would ruin everything!" + +"Then stay right here; pace back and forth, and I'll manage the rest. +I don't for the life of me know how, but I'll do it." + +As Cecilia and Pepperton stepped from behind the screen of vines, the +men on the benches lifted their heads; then I heard murmurs of +amazement and chagrin, and caught a fleeting glimpse of Dick tearing +through the hedge with his late companions tumbling after in fierce +pursuit. + +I ran to the stable and found a horse, feeling that I must be in a +position to move rapidly if I saw Wiggins approaching. If Dick eluded +his wrathful pursuers he would be on the lookout somewhere, awaiting +his own time, and if he saw Wiggins rushing madly for the house, he +might yet circumvent us. + +I satisfied myself that Cecilia and Pepperton were still plainly +visible from the garden, and I knew that for the time she was safe. I +gained the high point in the road from which Hezekiah and I had +observed Dick on guard at noon, and waited. Remembering the fine +figure the philosopher had made against the sky, I dismounted and +rested by a stone wall where I could watch with less risk of being seen +from a distance. + +I at once saw matters that interested me immensely. Dick had thrown +off the other suitors, and was rapidly crossing the fields toward +Hopefield. When I caught sight of him, he was just leaving the orchard +where Hezekiah and I had held our memorable interview. A long stretch +of rough pasture lay before him, and he settled down to a quick trot. +He took several fences without lessening his gait, crossed the stile +like a flash a little later, and was out of sight. + +As I turned to my horse I heard the swift patter of hoofs, and saw a +man and woman galloping furiously toward me. They were rapidly nearing +the ridge, and their horses were springing over the firm white road in +prodigious leaps. Wiggins had got my message; Hezekiah had met him in +the road and was urging him on! Here indeed was a situation to stir +the heart, and the blood sang in my ears as I watched them. I waved my +arm as they checked their horses for the long climb. The riders had +lost their hats in their mad race, and Wiggins's horse was nearly done +for. As they came still nearer, I saw that Wiggins had taken fire at +last. + +"Orton said some one was killed,--who--what--who"-- + +"I just picked him up five minutes ago; he doesn't know anything," said +Hezekiah; "and you dare n't tell him--remember the rules! What's +doing?" she inquired coolly. + +She bade Wiggins exchange horses with her, and while he was readjusting +the saddle-girths I explained to Hezekiah the situation at Hopefield +and told her of Dick's scamper across the fields. + +"There's no use fooling with this thing any more. I'll take Wiggy to +the house and lock him up until I 've been numbered six,--it's safest." + +"Not much it isn't. I don't intend that Cecilia shall have the +pleasure of refusing you." + +"I'd like to know why not. It's only to fill the gap." + +"Oh!" said Hezekiah, "that would be an embarrassment to me all the rest +of my life. Listen carefully. Take Wiggy in by the back way, and give +him a picture-book to look at. Leave Cecilia alone on the terrace when +you're all ready, and see what happens. If Dick's on his way to the +house he's going to do something, and he must feel the edge of my +displeasure. I owe him a few on general principles." + +"What does all this mean? You say there 's nothing wrong at the +house?" began Wiggins as we left Hezekiah and started toward Hopefield. + +"Nothing whatever the matter; everything perfectly all right; but +you've got to keep mum now and do what I tell you. I've worked hard +for you, old man, and when it's all over I'm going to send you a bill +for professional services. Come!" + +I urged my horse to his utmost, and Wiggins rode steadily beside me. +The fright Orton had given him had done my friend good, and I felt that +I was dealing with a live man at last. Our speed did not permit +conversation, but feeling that Wiggins was entitled to some further +assurance, I waited until we were climbing our last hill to add a word. + +"I'll tell you all about this after we have a good-night cigar +to-night. You know I told you I was going to help, and if nothing goes +wrong and Hezekiah does n't fail, you will see the world with new eyes +before you sleep." + +We rode direct to the stable, and I took Wiggins to my room by the back +stairs and bade him help himself to my raiment. He was perfectly +tractable, and I was glad to see that he trusted implicitly to my +guidance. + +I met Miss Octavia in the lower hall. She was just in from the +kennels. Her new Airedale was a perfect specimen of the breed, she +declared, and she announced her intention of exhibiting him at all the +reputable bench shows in America. + +"I hope, Arnold, that you have not been without entertainment to-day." + +"Miss Hollister, the three musketeers were fat monks asleep under the +sunny wall of a monastery compared with me!" + +"I am glad you are not bored. By the way, if you should by any chance +see Hezekiah, you will kindly intimate to her that if she returns that +Estabrook mare she borrowed this morning in reasonably good condition, +I will overlook her indiscretion in taking it from the stable without +permission." + +She did not wait for a reply, but continued on to her room, and I went +direct to the terrace. Cecilia and Pepperton were just going into the +house to look up a book or piece of music which they had been +discussing. Cecilia was making herself interesting, as she so well +knew how to do, and she seemed in no wise anxious. + +"We had forgotten tea," she said. "Aunt Octavia has just ordered it." + +"She and Mr. Pepperton may have their tea. I believe the air outside +will do you good for a little longer,--so if you don't mind, Pepperton, +Miss Hollister will resume her promenade alone." + +Pep has told me since that he thought me quite mad that afternoon. I +bade Cecilia patrol the long terrace slowly. She turned up the collar +of the covert coat and obeyed, laughing a little nervously but asking +no questions. The scene could not have been more charmingly set. The +great house loomed darkly behind her; beneath lay the garden, over +which the dusk was stealing goldenly. + +She paused suddenly as I watched from the window, and I stepped out to +see what had attracted her attention. There into the garden from its +farther entrance filed the six suitors who had previously come to sit +beneath the windows of their stricken lady! Having failed to visit +their wrath upon the perfidious Dick they had changed their clothes and +returned to Hopefield. If Hezekiah had not expressly commanded me not +to become the sixth man, I should have offered myself on the spot, and +waited only until Cecilia had made the inevitable answer before +summoning Wiggins to end the whole affair. Such, however, was not to +be the order of events. + +The procession, headed by Ormsby, was within a few yards of the +terrace. Cecilia, apparently unconscious of their proximity, continued +her promenade. In a moment she must recognize them, ask them into the +house, give them tea, and otherwise destroy my hope of securing her +happiness before the day's end. + +A chorus of yelps and barks, as of dogs suddenly released, greeted my +ear. The oncoming suitors heard it too, and the line wobbled +uncertainly. Then round the house swept mastiffs, hounds, terriers,--a +collection of prize-winners such as few kennels ever boasted, loping +gayly in unwonted freedom toward unknown and forbidden pastures. + +The vanguard of fox-terriers leaped down into the garden, with the rest +of the pack at their heels. Happy dogs, to find grown men ready for a +gambol! Six coat-tails streamed from the hips of six gentlemen in a +hurry. Several battered hats mixed with geraniums were retained later +as spoils of war by the gardener. That garden had been built for +repose and contemplative amblings, not for panic and flight. The +disorder was superior in picturesqueness to that which attended the +pumpkin stampede; at least it struck me at the moment as funnier; and I +have never since been able to attend a day wedding without appearing +idiotic--the procession of ushers suggests possibilities that are too +much for me. Four of the suitors found one of the proper exits into +the road; two leaped the box-hedge on the other side without shaking a +leaf. + +I ran round the house, stumbling through the rear-guard of the truant +canines, and passing the kennel-master, who had rallied the stable men +and was in hot pursuit. + +"Somebody turned 'em out--turned 'em out!" he shouted, and swept +profanely by. The gate of the kennel-yard stood open. A familiar +figure, running low, paused, and then sprinted nimbly along the paddock +fence. A white sweater was distinguishable for a moment on a stone +wall, then it followed a pair of enchanted heels into oblivion. + +Time had been passing swiftly, and the shadows were deepening. I +retraced my steps toward the terrace, hearing the cries of pursued and +pursuers growing fainter. I had not yet gained a position from which I +could see Cecilia, when a man appeared some distance ahead of me, +walking guardedly in one of the garden-plots. He came uncertainly, +pausing to glance about, yet evidently led toward the terrace by a +definite purpose. All may be fair in love and war, but I confess to a +feeling of pity for John Stewart Dick as I watched him slowly advancing +to his fate. He was going boldly now, and I felt a sudden liking for +him; nor can I believe that he was other than a manly fellow with sound +brains and a good heart. + +I reasoned, as I marked his approach to the terrace, that he had been +loitering in the neighborhood, probably watching Cecilia and Pepperton, +and when the architect retired, he had assumed that the sixth man had +spoken. The appearance of his former comrades of the inn had doubtless +disturbed him as it had me; then, thanks to the resourceful Hezekiah, +they had been routed and the coast was clear. I think it likely that +the sight of Cecilia sombrely pacing the terrace in the darkening +shadows was too much for his philosophic poise, or like the rest of us +who were actors in that comedy, he may have felt that any end was +better than the doubts and uncertainties that beset us. + +I watched him draw nearer to Cecilia as I have watched deer go down to +a lake to drink. He would speak now; I was confident of it; and I +stole round to the side entrance and sent word to Wiggins to go to the +drawing-room and wait for me. + +Miss Octavia and Pepperton still lingered over their tea-cups. The row +made by the fugitives from her kennels had not, it seemed, penetrated +to the library, and Miss Octavia bade me join the talk, which had to +do, I remember, with some project for a national hall of fame that had +incurred her characteristic displeasure. A hall of immortal rascals in +pillories she thought far likelier to please the masses. + +In fifteen minutes I saw Cecilia crossing the hall. She stopped where +I could see her quite plainly, and thrust her hand into the pocket of +her coat. Out flashed the silver note-book. She made a swift notation +with the pencil that now, I knew, wrote the fate of the sixth man. + +I went out and spoke to her, and walked beside her to the drawing-room +door, where Hartley Wiggins was waiting. + +Miss Octavia had risen when I returned to the library, and it was time +to dress for dinner. + +"Just a moment, Miss Hollister. Something of great interest is about +to occur;" and I made excuses for detaining her for perhaps five +minutes,--not more. + +"You have never yet deceived me, Arnold Ames, and such is my confidence +in you that if you tell me that something interesting will soon occur, +I have no reason to doubt you. It is worth remembering, however, that +fowl is not improved by prolonged roasting." + +I heard Wiggins laugh in the hall, and Miss Octavia raised her head. +Then Cecilia came into the room, and walked directly to her aunt. + +"Aunt Octavia, here is the little silver notebook you gave me in Paris; +I have just written Mr. Wiggins's name in it, and as I have no further +use for the book, I return it with my love and thanks." + +Without a word, Miss Octavia turned to the wall and pressed the button +twice. + +"William," she said as the butler appeared, "you may serve Oriana '97, +and be careful not to freeze it to death; and the hour for dinner is +changed to eight. Arnold, you may yourself drive to Gooseberry +Bungalow for my brother and niece. They dine with me to-night." + + +Hezekiah and I built our bungalow in the orchard where on that October +afternoon I found her munching a red apple on the stone wall. She is +the most scrupulous of housewives, and only now took me to task for +scattering the hearth with fragments of the notes from which this +narrative has been written. She has just been reading these last +pages, with meditative brown eyes, and not without occasionally +reaching for the pen and retouching some sentence in which, she says, +soot from my chimney-doctoring days has clogged the ink. Cecilia and +Wiggins live at Hopefield across the fields. Miss Octavia insisted on +this, for the reason that the sword of Hartley's great-grandfather, +found in the chest under the old house, gives him inalienable rights to +the premises. Miss Octavia and her brother Bassford are traveling +abroad and enjoying those mild adventures to which they are both +temperamentally inclined. As Miss Octavia carried with her the Parker +House umbrella-check I am confident of her early return. + +My name is joined to Pepperton's on his office-door. Pepperton +proposed this arrangement, with so many assurances of faith in me that +I could not refuse him; but I knew well enough that Miss Octavia had +first put it into his head. So while I have called myself a +chimney-doctor in these pages, I am again an architect, and the new +cathedral now rising at Waxahaxie is, let me modestly note, the work of +my hand. + +"You ought to say something more about the Asolando," Hezekiah has just +murmured at my shoulder. "Everybody will ask whether we ever went back +there." + +"Of course we go back there, Hezekiah, every time you come to town and +can get hold of me. Will that be enough?" + +"You'd better explain that Aunt Octavia started the tea-room and still +owns it, and makes money out of it, though she rarely goes there, but +sends Freda the maid to collect the profits. And it won't do any harm +to say that when she met you there that day, she decided at once that +you would be a proper husband for me. Any one who reads your book will +want to know that." + +Hezekiah is always right; so here endeth the chronicle. + + + + +The Riverside Press + +CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS + +U . S . A + + + + +THE RIGHT STUFF + +By IAN HAY + +"Those who love the companionship of people of fine fibre, and to whom +a sense of humor has not been denied, will make no mistake in seeking +the society open to them in 'The Right Stuff.'"--_New York Times_. + +"Hay resembles Barrie, and, like Barrie, he will grow in many +ways."--_Cleveland Leader_. + +"A compelling tribute to the homely genuineness and sterling worth of +Scottish character."--_St. Louis Post Dispatch_. + +"Mr. Hay has written a story which is pure story and is a delight from +beginning to end."--_San Francisco Argonaut_. + +"It would be hard, indeed, to find a more winning book."--_New Orleans +Times-Democrat_. + + + +With frontispiece by James Montgomery Flagg. 12mo. + +$1.20 net. Postage 10 cents. + + + * * * * * * * * + + +THE TWISTED FOOT + +By HENRY MILNER RIDEOUT + +"Henry Milner Rideout has written several good stories of Oriental +mystery, but none of them approach in excellence 'The Twisted +Foot.'"--_Cleveland Plain Dealer_. + +"The story is fascinating and full of the witchery of the +East."--_Congregationalist_. + +"Its persuasiveness of action, its alluring color and high heart +courage, make it one of the striking romances of the time."--_New York +American_. + +"The whole story glows with the local life and color."--_New York +Times_. + + + +With seven full-page illustrations by G. C. Widney. + +12mo. $1.20 net. Postage 11 cents. + + + * * * * * * * * + + +THE PROFESSIONAL AUNT + +By MARY C. E. 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